Pradeep Akkunoor – a Research scholar based in Thailand is one of the pioneers in Insurance fraud.
Insurance fraud is typically characterized as external or third-party fraud. Unlike other frauds where the employees commit the frauds by virtue of their occupation, Insurance companies face the risk of fraud from external and third-party frauds. It becomes difficult to understand the psychology of external fraudsters.
Additionally, there are no patterns in the transactions as there could be some red flags in credit card usage. Hence Insurance frauds are highly complicated to investigate. This is a domain that requires the attention of other industries.
Research on Insurance fraud
Fraud is a phenomenon that affects every industry, however, given the nature of the insurance business, the fraud risk is even more pronounced in this sector. A philosopher once said you do not know what you can not measure or quantify.
In this context, it is Indiaforensic’s humble effort to quantify the magnitude of the fraud that affects this industry and take on the problem head-on by identifying appropriate solutions.
I would take this opportunity to thank all the Insurance companies and the managers who took part in this survey which enabled us to come up with this research report. The consensus is eye-opening – the insurance industry is losing close to 15000 Crores rupees every year! That is almost 9% of the revenues of an insurance company. This clearly indicates the seriousness of the problem. With the publication of this report, we hope to achieve greater awareness among consumers which can eventually lead to a reduction in insurance fraud.
Respondents
Pradeep launched the research to understand the perceptions of the
1. Claims managers [80% of the respondents were claims managers]
2. Employees working in other divisions in the Insurance Industry [ 20% of respondents were from various other divisions ]
Methodology
These findings are very interesting and the research is available for download on request.
Methodology followed by Indiaforensic in the research is as follows
* Decided on the research concept
* Study of issues
* Preparation of questionnaires
* Collecting responses through personal interviews and email surveys
* Data Analysis of the survey responses
* Report Creation
* Expert Review and Comments
* Publishing and Awareness Drive
This is very interesting research and needs to be followed by those who are in the Special Investigation Units of various insurance companies.
Quantification of losses
One of the most significant achievements of this research is the quantification of the absolute approximate losses in Indian Rupees to the Insurance Industry in the year 2009. The figure is bound to change but this report will act as the benchmark.
