Fraud costs South African insurers 497 million USD

According to the South African Insurance Crimes Bureau's estimates, property and casualty insurance fraud would cost the South African market 7 billion ZAR (497.86 million USD) in 2019, that is 20% of the total claims reported which amounted to 35 billion ZAR (2.48 billion USD).

Fraudulent activities are manifested by misrepresentations of the risk when underwriting contracts or by false claims upon the occurrence of a loss. Insurance fraud can also be unintentional.

According to Christelle Colman, insurance expert at Old Mutual, the financial pressure that consumers are facing in 2020 due to the pandemic could increase fraud attempts.