Insurance Fraud in Spain

Fraud has a direct impact on the consumer as the economic effects of these disappointments cause an increase in the price of insurance policies. The companies calculate that the increase in premiums is around 5% on car policies, 4% on home policies, 7% on business policies and 17% on civil liability policies.

The attempt to deceive insurance companies continues to rise in Spain according to an article released recently in the Spanish press. The fraud rate for 2017 in the Spanish insurance sector stood at 1.7% and there is confirmation that the trend is continuing to rise.

The car industry is still the one that accumulates the highest number of frauds since 60% of the disappointments are related to motor insurance. The other major segment that is affected by fraud is multi-risk insurance which includes home insurance, business insurance and community insurance. This now represents 30% which is actually curiously at 2% decrease on previous years.

The highest areas of fraud are reported in Melilla, Murcia, Andalucia and the Canary Islands, while the more “honest” regions are Madrid, the Basque country, Ceuta and Catalonia.

This report was commissioned but a top insurance company in Spain and the report highlights a very serious problem that there are more organized crime groups now committing fraud than in recent years there is a worrying increase in the number of whose main purpose is to deceive insurance companies. The number of crimes carried out by organized networks grew by 19% last year and already represents 3.2% of all attempts to deceive insurers.

Unespa, an association that includes insurance companies operating in Spain signed an agreement with the Civil Guard in 2015 to improve the collaboration between the security forces and companies during investigation of alleged frauds.