Crazy ways people ‘claim’ on travel insurance

OF COURSE you’re going to treat yo’self on holiday, but most normal people simply save up. A cheeky few think they’re too smart for the system.

OF COURSE you’re going to treat yo’self on holiday.

But while most normal people save beforehand, and maybe tighten their belts afterwards, a cheeky few think they’re just a bit too smart for the system.

Take the traveller who came home and reported having $36,000 worth of designer shoes and bags, jewellery, cameras and laptops stolen from their hotel room.

They’d taken out a policy with Southern Cross Travel Insurance, and a large pool of money was tantalisingly in reach of their sticky fingers.

They manufactured a report from the hotel, and made a claim.

Inevitably, they were busted when the insurer contacted the hotel manager, who had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.

This is a real example of a de-identified claim — and it’s one of many.

Of course you’re going to treat yo’self on holiday.

According to finder.com.au, Australians run up an average of $2705 on their credit cards while on holiday, and they usually travel overseas for two weeks at a time.

Chris White, chief executive officer of Southern Cross Travel Insurance, told news.com.au his company processes about 55,000 insurance claims a year — and he estimates a wishful 550 or so attempt to pull a fast one.

“I think the main reason is that people who choose to do it more often than not come back from holiday and feel like they’ve overspent,” he told news.com.au.

“They may have a legitimate claim, and feel like they want to add to that with a false claim, or it may be entirely false.”

He said more often than not, people assume they can get away with it because insurance processing teams won’t be able validate reports from other countries.

“Some are more sophisticated than others,” he acknowledged.

People spin incredibly creative stories when they’re desperate.

One false claim that had absolutely no chance of being paid out, occurred when a traveller reported their bag had been stolen with an Apple laptop inside.

When asked for proof of ownership, he admitted he’d bought it from a “shady” friend who also wasn’t able to prove ownership.

Unsurprisingly, it was declined.

Mr White said he thinks there’s a perception that if customers provide details about an incident that happened overseas, there’s no way of checking the facts.

“In the computerised world we live in, we can validate a lot of information quite quickly. It doesn’t matter where it happened,” he said.

“Our staff are pretty good at identifying them, and we have access to personal investigators as well. There are often telltale signs on the invoices and things like that, and details are missing, or details provided conflict with the story itself.”

For example, one customer claimed their vehicle boot had been broken into while they relaxed in a park, thieves had stolen a laptop, sunglasses, clothing and money.

It’s seriously not that hard for insurers to catch you out thought.

They alleged they’d had to pay to have the boot repaired, but when investigators contacted the panel beater listed on the claim, there was no record of the car.

“It’s impossible to tell, but we’d like to think we catch most of them,” he said.

In many cases, the insurer will simply decline the claim and cancel the policy, however, ultimately they do reserve the right to go to the police.

“That can lead to charges, and it also affects your ability to get any insurance going forward. We operate a blacklist model,” he told news.com.au.

“In insurance, we all share the cost of false claims, so it’s better for everybody. It’s important we identify false claims to keep the prices of premiums down.”

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