The Corona crisis means a loss of income for many companies and citizens.
Obviously, this means that some want to keep their insurance harmless.
Unterföhring - Germany's largest insurer Allianz reports increasing numbers of insurance fraud in the wake of the corona pandemic.
Overall, the number of fraud attempts has risen by around ten percent since the beginning of the pandemic, said Allianz Germany.
A suspected connection with the closings of retail and gastronomy is noticeable.
Accordingly, the alliance recorded a sudden increase in water damage to commercial customers of around a quarter.
As an example, the company cites seasonal goods destroyed by water that could not be sold in stores due to the corona restrictions.
Less self-explanatory is an increase in attempted fraud of around ten percent in motor insurance and around 20 percent in general liability.
Dubious claims reports
“Worldwide studies assume that between 10 and 15 percent of all claims reports are dubious.
That also applies to Germany, ”says Jochen Haug, board member of Allianz Versicherungs-AG, the Munich-based company responsible for property insurance in Germany.
"We were also able to observe that in times of crisis, attempts at fraud increase across all sectors."
Last year, customers of Allianz Versicherungs-AG reported a total of 2.3 million claims, and the expenses for this amounted to over seven billion euros.
According to the company, Allianz discovered attempted fraud with a sum in the three-digit million euro range.
The General Association of the German Insurance Industry (GDV) estimates the nationwide damage to the industry at around five billion euros annually.
Haug therefore defends himself against the complaints about insurers who are unwilling to pay, which can often be read in online forums: "We are concerned with protecting honest customers who also pay for other people's insurance fraud," says the Allianz manager.
“Every fraud that we don't catch puts a strain on the insured community.
The better our fraud protection, the faster and easier it is for us to pay the vast majority of our honest customers their justified claims. "
Two types of fraud
Insurance companies differentiate between two types of fraud: on the one hand, excessive claims reports, on the other hand, fictitious or deliberately caused damage.
"Whenever a new iPhone generation was announced by Apple, the number of iPhones involved in accidents with very strange damage reports increased," Haug cites an example.
"This fact is now leveling off."
Digitization has advantages and disadvantages for insurers when it comes to fraud.
Example of fictitious car accidents: "In the past, vehicles were actually damaged," says Haug.
"Today it is the case that the damage also occurs virtually on the screen by means of appropriate image processing programs."
At the same time, technology makes detective work easier. “But we're also upgrading,” says Haug. “The better the image processing software, the better the software for recognizing image processing.” Dpa