Insurance giant reveals the profile of those most likely to try to scam insurers

Malaga province ranks third, after Cantabria and Cuenca, for attempts to rip off insurance companies, according to a survey by Línea Directa. Of the total number of insurance fraud attempts in Spain, 7.6 per cent took place in Malaga, 9.4 per cent in Cantabria and 8.6 per cent in Cuenca.

The most common scam is including material damage in a claim not related to how that damage happened, said Línea Directa. The profile of the person most likely to do this is a young man with a 'precarious' job, the insurance giant found.

More than half of the people, 55 per cent, who admitted their deception in 2020 said they had attempted the fraud because of financial hardship incurred because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The attempt to defraud ranges from simulated car accidents to claims for permanent disability.

Andalucía is also the autonomous region with the second greatest number of mafias dedicated to insurance fraud after Murcia, according to Línea Directa’s 'VI Barometer of Fraud in Car and Home Insurance', which analyses almost 75,000 attempts at deception uncovered Línea Directa in the last two years.

However, restrictions on movement during the pandemic reduced the scope of these mafia. In 2019, 111 gangs were in operation across Spain while in 2020 that number dropped to 74. Their modus operandi is often referred to as "carousel fraud", according to the report, as they scam different insurers in succession.

In March last year, a gang dedicated to simulating traffic accidents to collect compensation from insurance companies was dismantled in Malaga. National Police arrested 17 people, all of them Spanish nationals, for alleged crimes of fraud, false documents and belonging to a criminal group.