Insurance industry facing increase in digital fraud attempts

The UK insurance industry is increasingly a target for digital fraud attempts, according a new TransUnion study.

Digital fraud attempts increased 32% from Q2 2021 and Q2 2022, with financial services and insurance seeing the biggest jumps. The data, analytics and software company revealed the figures in its quarterly fraud analysis.

The rate of suspected digital fraud attempts in insurance has more than doubled (up 257%) in that period.

The most common digital fraud type reported to TransUnion by companies in insurance was first party application fraud, where policyholders provide inaccurate information to get lower rates or better terms.

Shail Deep, chief product officer at TransUnion in the UK, commented: “In recent years, we’ve seen fraudsters routinely shift focus across industries, aligned to changing consumer habits and rapid digital acceleration. In particular, industries that have seen major shifts towards a digital user experience are ripe targets and that’s why financial services and insurance are experiencing such significant increases.”

“Businesses across all areas must be vigilant and adopt advanced analytical tools that use global datasets to ensure robust fraud prevention and authentication processes.”

Image: Canva

Mark Dugdale