ICBC had an interesting year when it came to investigating fraud.
Their Communications Specialist Leslie Dickson says the most interesting cases in BC ranged from a hit-and-run victim turned perpetrator, a false identity exposed with facial recognition software, and an exaggerated claim proven false by a travel blog.
She says two special investigation teams look into every case thoroughly.
“One focuses specifically on claims, one focuses on driver licensing -related fraudulent activities,” she says.”But also, our claims adjusters are trained to identify warning signs or ‘red flags’ on suspicious claims, so they’re also a part of our process to detect fraud.”
However, Dickson says it is difficult to calculate the trend of fraudulent activity.
“We don’t know if the trend is going up or down,” she explains. “The industry estimate is 10% to 15% of insurance claims contain an element of fraudulent exaggeration, so that’s why we’re trying to prevent and investigate fraud to keep claims costs down.”
Dickson says in 2014, they put forward 131 charges province-wide to Crown counsel.