Last year's detected insurance fraud amount hit an all-time high.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service on the 31st, last year's detected insurance fraud amount was 1.1571 trillion won, up 0.6% from the previous year. The number of people caught was 105,743, down 3.0% over the same period. By line of business, auto insurance accounted for the most at 49.5% (572.4 billion won), followed by long-term insurance at 39.8% (461.0 billion won).
By type of fraud, manipulation of accident details to inflate claims—such as falsifying or altering medical certificates—accounted for a majority at 54.9% (635.0 billion won). In particular, cases in which hospitals exploited auto insurance to overcharge treatment costs surged 582.5%. False accidents were next at 20.2% (234.2 billion won), followed by intentional accidents at 15.1% (175.0 billion won).
By age group, those in their 50s (22.1%·23,346 people), 60s (19.9%·21,041 people), and 40s (19.1%·20,230 people) were the most frequent, and they made up a majority. While insurance fraud by people in their 60s and older is increasing, insurance fraud by those in their 20s saw a decline in auto insurance fraud. By occupation, office workers (23.0%) were the most common, followed by the unemployed and day laborers (12.1%), homemakers (9.2%), students (4.7%), and transportation workers (4.6%). The unemployed and day laborers, students, and those working in the insurance industry increased, while the rest of the occupational groups decreased.
As insurance fraud led by hospital and insurance industry workers increases, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) plans to strengthen its cooperation framework with related agencies and push forward a planned investigation based on insider tips received during the special reporting period for insurance fraud.