Insurers claim €99 million in fraud prevented last year

Last year insurers saved nearly 99 million euros by tackling fraud - a 10 percent increase compared to 2013, despite the fact that fewer investigations were done, the Association of Insurers announced on Thursday. This is based on new figures released by the Center for Combating Insurance Crime. Last year insurers launched more than 20 thousand insurance fraud investigations, 15 percent less than in 2013. The number of "successful investigations", where fraud was established, increased however. "This indicates that insurers are becoming more effective at recognizing investigation worthy incident", the Association writes. In a total of 7,762 of the investigations - 38 percent - actual fraud was detected. In most cases this involved people claiming damages when there were no damages. According to the Association, these investigations saved nearly 99 million euros - about 270 thousand euros per day - by recovering money paid out wrongly or not paying out a claim at all. A third of the people caught committing fraud has also been added to the insurers' national warning system, so that other insurers are aware of them.