A horrifying trend is emerging in the UK, whereby pet owners are maiming – or even killing – their pets in order to defraud the pet insurance provider. Another aspect of this fraud is that owners ‘lose’ their pets, usually after dumping them a one or two-hour drive away from...
Ghost – Busters More and more leading motor insurers are becoming seriously concerned about so-called ‘ghost brokers’ – fraudulent brokers who offer motor cover at attractively low rates. The snag? It’s completely fake cover and tens of thousands of motorists fall for the contrick. Advertising on the internet or in...
The biggest – and the best We’re all familiar with the heart-breaking stories of homeowners whose premises have been flattened by tornadoes or earthquakes – perhaps in the American Midwest, or Turkey – whose cover terms simply don’t include natural disasters. Well, news broke recently of a supreme act of...
The relatively low penetration of Life (and related) products in the Middle East and GCC means that many of the classic insurance ‘scams’ – of the kind you’d regularly find in, say, Europe or the USA – simply don’t get a chance to happen. One of the exceptions, though, is...
The beach-front home of New York media mogul Tom Graves was broken into in August 2010, with thieves stealing a unique charcoal sketch by the Dutch Old Master, Rembrandt.The sketch was insured for US$860,000 and the insurer (who must remain nameless sub judice), had already paid the claim when the...
While Tokyo is the city with the highest real estate prices in the world, the country with the highest property values nationwide is the UK – where the value of the average dwelling is GBP161,000 (US$249,888). Unfortunately for insurers, it also has the second-highest level of (very expensive) property claims...
A court in Paris convicted 34 year-old Mark Desgranges of brutally attacking and maiming four women, for which he received a seven-year prison sentence. In prison, he received psychiatric counseling from a female psychiatrist. After the first three sessions, he threatened to attack her. Understandably, she then refused to give...
Gone in 60 seconds ! LONDON IS the car theft capital of the world, with a vehicle stolen every 20 seconds. London’s car insurers face astronomical claims, especially since the city Is favoured by professional car thieves working on commission from agents sourcing particular models for their clients. BMWs, Porsches,...
Is this the world’s most extreme case of claims development? In 1994, a funfair’s ferris wheel collapsed in San Diego, California. No-one was hurt, but the building next door – a biotechnology research lab – was seriously damaged. The lab contained more than 14,000 blood samples, many of them central...
If you’re an insurer, rather than have challenging clients in, say, the American tornado belt, central Africa or on the Indonesian coast, how about specializing in a quiet, idyllic English country town? Surely nothing could go wrong there? Guess again. Tom Venables is a resident of Wiveliscombe, a picture-perfect town...
