Members of the public are being urged to expose false compensation claimants in their midst under a new anti-fraud insurers' campaign. A "fraud-busters" hotline, operated by the insurance industry, is to be opened later this month.
It will run alongside a major billboard, radio and press advertising campaign under the theme "The number is up for insurance fraudsters".
A spokesman for the Irish Insurance Federation (IIF) said it was not offering rewards for information. Rather, the reward would be reduced insurance fraud, which was one of the factors in the cost of insurance premiums.
The IIF "conservatively" estimates the cost of insurance fraud this year at €100 million. This sum excludes the cost of claims from uninsured or untraced driving accidents, the outstanding liability for which is in excess of €300 million.
The federation lists the most common forms of fraud as: making false declarations or failure to disclose information in order to get insurance cover; making out a number of policies to cover the same risk in order to make multiple claims; inflating the value of items or getting cover for items which don't exist; staging accidents in order to make a claim; and inflating a claim following a genuine accident.
The spokesman said information received by hotline staff would be dealt with confidentially. All such leads would be passed to the relevant company's fraud co-ordinators and undergo "rigorous" checks before being acted upon.
"It will then be up to the professional experience of the relevant claims manager to see if the information stands up," the spokesman said. The IIF also plans to liaise with the Garda if prosecutions are warranted.
