Fake Pet Insurance Payouts Soar To £2million

The number of people falsely claiming on their pet insurance policies has rocketed, according to the Association of British Insurers.

Findings from a new survey show that many owners are going to the extreme of deliberately harming their pets for insurance claims money and that the sum of pet insurance fraud pay-outs detected last year amounted to almost £2million.

The organisation has revealed that there was £1,929,900 worth of fraudulent animal compensation claims in 2010 and that the number of fake requests has almost quadrupled in the last year from £420,000 in 2009 – making it the fastest growing area of insurance claims.

Industry experts are concerned that the injuries to the furry friends are similar to ‘cash for crash’ scams which involves cars being purposely smashed for compensation. And with over 2.3 million cats and dogs being insured last year, the number of cases that could possibly occur is startling.

The study found that some owners are injuring their pets in ‘fake accidents’ to cover up previous conditions that were not covered by their policy, and that some owners have even killed their domestic animals to claim an early death insurance pay-out. Animals are going mysteriously missing in order for owners to claim that the pet is lost or stolen and the report concludes that some pets may never have existed in the first place.

Insurers are concerned that some vets may be involved in the sick cons and are deliberately putting healthy pets down for quick bucks. For all claims in excess of £1,000, an insurance company will appoint their own loss adjusters who will investigate the claim to see whether your insurers have grounds for turning it down.

Whether you are claiming for pet insurance, flood, fire or burglary, get in touch with the expert insurance claim advice and service firm today and speak to the friendly loss assessors at Salmon Assessors.