The fightback against car insurance continues – and one insurer has even managed to cut off a £100k scam.
One Call Insurance has heaped praise on its “highly skilled” in-house fraud team for successfully detecting and foiling a crime which dates back to June this year. It was then that One Call was presented with what it described as a “non-descript claim” that included a “convincing, but bogus” third-party solicitor providing professional letterheads and a credible automated phone system.
The insurer, however, discovered that it was dealing with a fraudster group – the criminals had allegedly stolen somebody’s identity and set up around 10 car insurance policies.
In addition, a further analysis discovered unusual discrepancies in the automotive engineer’s report – such as the presence of snow in photos that had supposedly been taken in June.
“I enquired with the company who allegedly inspected the vehicle, and this confirmed my suspicions,” said Michael Bellamy, One Call counter fraud and advanced verification investigator. “They advised me that the report had been falsified, and the signature and credentials used belonged to a legitimate automotive engineer, however, one that had retired the previous year.”
Finally, the insurer carried out conversations with the company that had insured the vehicle previously – duly discovering that it was sold six days after the alleged accident and that it had been at a storage yard on the date of the claim.
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