Insurers urged to keep vigilance against fraudulent claimants
As insurance companies show more commitment to meet claims obligations to the insured public, operators have been urged to keep vigilant watch for fraudulent claimants so that the system can be sustainable and devoid of distrust.
Experts who shared this sentiment said if fraudulent activities can be kept at abeyance from the industry, processing of genuine claims, time would be well reduced.
“We will achieve promptness in the settlement of claims and consumers will be happier if we have to deal with only genuine claims, but many fraudsters take advantage of our leniency to make money from the insurance companies,” one of the experts said.
Sunny Adeda, managing director, Alpha Choice Insurance Brokers Limited, who spoke at the Insurance Consumers’ Forum, organised by Almond Productions Limited, said this was one of the reasons why insurance companies always ensure that all necessary documents to process a claim, are provided before compensating the insured.
Adeda, who is also chairman of the forum, noted that some Nigerians are so dubious that they always come up with fake claims that will look like genuine ones, all in a bid to dupe their insurers, a development he termed ‘Nigeria factor’.
He cited several examples whereby, insurance consumers will normally call for a claim, that are not genuine. Citing one of these instances, he said: “There was a client, who valued his BMW car at N4 million. Two months after he insured the car with his insurer, he came for claims, claiming his car was stolen. In the course of investigating the genuiness of the claim, we noticed the car was packed somewhere within Lagos.
“Thank God, he has a dispute with one of his friends, who sent an anonymous letter to us, notifying us where the car was packed. But the owner was so smart that, by the time we got to where he packed the car, he had relocated it to somewhere else. He kept the dribble game and since we have no concrete evidence to discard the claim, we have to settle him for N900,000, instead of the N4 million he was requesting, after several meetings with him.”
The insurance expert noted that this dubious tendency was why insurance companies do request for police report, especially, in the case of car accident, stolen vehicle, among others, before a claim is settled.
The most annoying aspect of it, he added, was that, in most cases, the Police report do come late, thereby prolonging the claim process.
While appealing to insurance consumers to always make genuine claims, he said, making fake claims will only raise suspicion from underwriters, although, insurers try to give waiver to claimant they considered trustworthy to ensure he gets his claim on time.
Moreover, he said most vehicles on Nigerian roads parade fake insurance papers, which are sold to unsuspecting public by fake underwriting firms.
He stated that this development had reaped off genuine insurance companies of the expected income, urging people to be extra careful whenever they want to buy motor insurance, especially, third-party motor insurance.
Ad however charged insurance consumers, who find it difficult to access their claims or don’t know the procedure, to direct their complaint to the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), Insurance Consumers Association of Nigeria (INSCAN), Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) or the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) for assistance.
Sunday Thomas, director general, NIA, appealed to Nigerians to ensure that they engage credible insurance companies or brokers to do their motor insurance, especially, third-party motor insurance, so that, they don’t enter the trap of fake insurers, who will only issue ordinary paper, that could not be used to process claim.
He stressed that the association was working assiduously on its Nigerian Insurance Industry Database (NIID) in partnership with Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO), to detect vehicles with fake insurance papers, in a bid to rid the industry of these racketeers.
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