Insurance fraud: the business as a victim?

Despite the growing volume of studies on fraud there has been very little research focusing on insurance fraud. 1 The scholarly work that has been undertaken (Clarke, 1989, 1990; Litton, 1990) has brought important progress but empirical work is scarce. Neither insurance companies, the police or other agencies have provided details of the extent of insurance fraud (in part a reflection of the fact that as an offence it is both difficult to identify and to prove). Moreover, in the past, insurers have tended to play down the problem, at least publicly. Hence, little is known about the motivations of insurance fraudsters and their perception of the insurance industry, nor the patterns or the extent of this offence. It is a poor base on which to build prevention strategies. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.