Allianz’s personal lines business has reported a 29%1 increase in fraud prevention in 2023 compared to the previous year. This spans across all types of insurance fraud from motor claims, home claims and application fraud, and the notable rise of ghost brokers and their tactics to lure innocent victims into a fake insurance policy.
Unfortunately, a landscape of rapidly evolving fraud tactics is evident, with fraudsters regularly adapting their methods to pursue new scams, including a rise in moped crash for cash fraud and an increase in shallow fakes. Cases where apps were used to distort real-life images, videos and documents increased by 300%2 from 2022 and into 2023, and has all the signs of becoming the latest big scam to hit the insurance industry.
In one case, an individual had a picture of his van posted on his social media page as part of his business, and had a claim pursued in his name for an accident that never took place. LV= received images of his vehicle from the fraudsters, showing the front bumper had been cracked in the alleged accident, along with a false repair invoice totalling over £1000. Noticing concerns with the claim, LV=’s fraud team investigated the case, identifying the image was identical to the one found on social media but with the addition of photo editing.
However, it’s not just photo editing that poses a problem for the insurance industry, but also other emerging technologies, including AI and the rise of deep fakes. The rapidly changing nature of these fraudulent activities pose big risks to UK consumers, and in recognition of fraudsters evolving their tactics Allianz’s personal lines business is developing how they build upon existing controls.
As part of its fraud investment, the insurer is announcing a new partnership with voice analytics tool Clearspeed, to detect more fraud and help accelerate the processing of genuine customer claims. Clearspeed provides a unique technology that not only helps identify potential fraudsters that were previously undetected, but also provides insight to help make better decisions and prioritise resources to boost efficiency and support a better customer experience.
Ben Fletcher, Director of Financial Crime at Allianz’s personal lines business comments: “Here at Allianz we remain committed to combatting fraud and safeguarding the interests of our honest and loyal customers. Our increased fraud detection rate in 2023 reflects how seriously we take this issue and our partnership with Clearspeed is the next step in our ambitious plans to enhance our fraud prevention measures. I look forward to a collaborative and effective partnership to further prevent insurance fraud and crime.”
Alex Martin, CEO of Clearspeed adds: “Allianz is a world class organisation and we’re thrilled to announce our partnership with them as we expand our footprint in the UK insurance market. In an increasingly complex risk environment, with accelerating customer experience expectations, there’s never been a better time to reimagine the claims process.”
“At our core, we believe the key to better identifying risk and preventing fraud is by enabling trust. This paradigm shift is critical to transforming the insurance industry to meet the challenges of today’s world. We can uniquely address that need without trading off between customer satisfaction and risk detection, leaning into greater precision and actionable insights.”
Notes to Editors:
1 Year on year comparison of how much money has been saved by Allianz personal lines business on combatting insurance fraud.
2 Allianz data on contrived motor insurance accidents from 2021 – 2022 including LV= General Insurance data.
About Clearspeed
Clearspeed is the market leader for assessing risk in speech. Global organizations trust our highly precise, accurate, and unbiased voice analytics to fast-track low risk while also alerting to possible fraud. Our clients and partners rely on the unique data we provide to improve their risk confidence, reduce their costs, and deliver an improved customer experience.
About Allianz Holdings plc
Allianz Holdings plc is the non-regulated holding company which owns the principal insurance operations of Allianz SE in Great Britain including Allianz Insurance.
About Allianz car insurance
Allianz car insurance has been re-branded from Flow insurance and offers a digital self-service annual motor product. It’s designed to be straightforward, providing customers with control at the touch of a button. Launched in 2021, Flow car insurance is Defaqto 5 Star rated and voted excellent on Trustpilot. Flow was awarded ‘Best motor insurance provider’ at the 2023 Insurance Choice awards as voted by customers. For more information visit: https://www.allianz.co.uk/
About Allianz
The Allianz Group is one of the world's leading insurers and asset managers with around 125 million* private and corporate customers in nearly 70 countries. Allianz customers benefit from a broad range of personal and corporate insurance services, ranging from property, life and health insurance to assistance services to credit insurance and global business insurance. Allianz is one of the world’s largest investors, managing around 737 billion euros** on behalf of its insurance customers. Furthermore, our asset managers PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors manage about 1.7 trillion euros** of third-party assets. Thanks to our systematic integration of ecological and social criteria in our business processes and investment decisions, we are among the leaders in the insurance industry in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In 2023, over 157,000 employees achieved total business volume of 161.7 billion euros and an operating profit of 14.7 billion euros for the group.
* Including non-consolidated entities with Allianz customers.
**As of December 31, 2023.
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Natasha Gibbs, External Communications Manager at Allianz & LV= General Insurance, [email protected]