Insurance fraud is when someone does something dishonestly (or doesn’t do something they should do under their policy) to try and illegally benefit in a way that they’re not entitled to. Any act or omission made with dishonest or illegal intent, to obtain a benefit or advantage, is considered fraudulent.

Most insurance fraud occurs at claim time, including:

• exagerated claims
• events/losses that didn’t happen
• staged losses – for example, arson and vehicle theft.

In addition, a large number of fraudulent claims occur through non-disclosure of information that insurers require, in order to match the correct premium to the risk.

In September 2019 the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) was launched by the ICNZ as New Zealand’s first integrated initiative to target insurance fraud through detection and education. All 28 ICNZ members are members of the IFB.

For more information on the IFB, who they are and what they do, visit ifb.org.nz