If Claiming Dishonestly Then Be Polite!

Insurance companies look for the wrong behaviour when trying to weed out fraudulent claims.


This is the finding of Marek Palasinski from Lancaster University who presented his findings at the British Psychological Society's Division of Forensic Psychology's Annual Conference, held at the Edinburgh Conference Centre, Heriot-Watt University.


According to surveys by the Association of British Insurers, 66% of people would dishonestly claim if they knew they could get away with it. To counteract this customer service staff at insurance companies are supplied with a list of fraud indicators and they try to help claims handlers identify dishonest-looking cases. These employees are told to look for claimants who are aggressive, hesitant and evasive. However, previous research implies that characteristics displayed by the fraudster do not differ much from genuine claims.


To ascertain whether the insurance companies had the right idea about fraudsters behaviour this study questioned men who had had a driving license for at least ten years and had claimed at least once. Each of the men were asked questions about fraud and asked to comment hypothetically on how they thought a fraudster would act when making a claim.


The men questioned disagreed with the insurance companies description of how a fraudster would behave. In fact they described quite opposite behaviour such as overt politeness and being inconspicuous by sounding casual to gain the trust of the customer service employee. They all agreed that the insurance companies description was not very accurate.


Interestingly none of the men questioned felt there was anything that wrong with making fraudulent claims. In fact many justified it as legitimate and fair way of getting something back from greedy and uncaring corporations.


Mr Palasinski explained; "Apparently drivers are able to spontaneously create a representation of fraudulent behaviour themselves and whilst engaged in this process they express virtually no moral reservations about it. Moreover, not only does cheating insurance companies appear to be acceptable it is also seen as a fair practice of settling old scores with big corporations viewed as unscrupulous and evil. This implies that insurance companies still face a long road in improving their public image and discouraging drivers from making dishonest claims.

British Psychological Society

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