How car insurers beat lb250,000 fraud claims with clever black box tech in order to save innocent Brits thousands

LATEST technology is helping insurers stop fraudsters from receiving bumper payouts.

The mega claims are being voided because clever black boxes fitted to cars will easily notice precisely what happened.

And telematics insurance provider Insurethebox revealed it's stopped two bogus claims recently more vital than lb250,000.

By proving the fraudsters are faking damage or injuries, it's saving innocent drivers premium hikes.

Claiming for excess damage or whiplash injuries are common types of fraud that previously would have resulted in costly attorney's fees and payouts.

But telematics – featuring a black box fitted to a policyholder's car and may net savings of lb145 annually on premiums – can uncover the lies.

Analysis from the data can reveal locations, speeds and crash impact to show all.

For example, some drivers claim for accidents when they were never in the place – or for a significant injury inside a low speed shunt.

These two cases show how Insurethebox saved thousands and beat the fraudsters.

Crash-for-cash

Five people submitted claims following a Mercedes ML braked suddenly and was hit with a black box policyholder inside a BMW 3 Series.

The policyholder presented a claim for the lack of his vehicle and the passengers submitted claims for injuries they supposedly sustained.

Additionally, the Mercedes driver claimed for private injury, even the loss of his vehicle along with a raft of other alleged losses totalling over lb30,000. His passenger also made a claim for personal injury.

However, the different versions of events presented by the drivers and passengers involved in the incident were inconsistent with one another.

Data showed showed the existence of two accident alerts within a seven second period. Yet none of the accounts given by those involved mentioned any subsequent collision.

The telematics data also demonstrated that the BMW driver actually drove past the Mercedes driver's yard (where his business was based) 11 minutes before the alleged accident occurred.

Since the Mercedes driver claimed he did not leave the yard until four minutes prior to the alleged accident, it caused the judge to question the way the BMW wound up behind the Mercedes.

Eventually, after a three-year battle, the claims were dismissed by the court, saving an estimated lb170,000.

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Excess damage

Accident reports provided by the policyholder and the claimant – a person of the BMW M Sport – seemed to match the data recorded through the telematics device.

However, investigations began when Insurethebox saw the severity and nature from the harm to the BMW did not match the crash data recorded through the telematics device in the policyholder's Hyundai.

Further investigations identified crash alerts following the accident had allegedly occurred, suggesting the policyholder's car had been used to boost the scale of damage towards the BMW.

In fact, the BMW had been subjected to a number of deliberate collisions inside a separate location following the accident, and forensic investigations also identified the BMW have been hit at least 5 times having a hammer in an attempt to increase the value of the claim.

The courts ruled against both parties involved and stopped an automobile damage claim for lb87,921 -including lb79,114 in credit hire costs – and recovered over lb70,000 in legal costs.