Digital revolution

Insurance fraud has become a huge business in recent years, and is still on the increase. As such, insurance fraud investigators will need to have access to the best tools available if they are to stem this growing tide.

Unfortunately, fraud investigations have traditionally been hampered by a number of problems associated with the recording, transcription and storage of interviews, which is a time-consuming and expensive process for insurers worldwide. However, thanks to the latest breakthroughs in digital recording technology, insurers can now save time while also improving the quality of the evidence being presented in court cases.

At the moment, many investigators are using dictaphones and tape recorders to conduct interviews during their fraud inquiries, while others are still using pen and paper to take detailed notes that will later be used as evidence. Naturally, this model brings many challenges, and also suffers from a number of serious limitations. For a start, investigators need to spend vast amounts of time on transcribing all of these statements before they can even bring their case to court — time that could be better spent building a stronger case, or dealing with more cases at one time.

As a result, this approach often causes significant delays, since the whole tedious process — from interview to a typed transcript that can be used as evidence in a suspected false claims case — typically takes weeks to be completed. Not only that, but there are serious security risks involved with sending such sensitive information in the post or via an internal, and supposedly secure, postal system.

These delays are even greater when it comes to more serious investigations, since numerous tapes are often used to record multiple interviews in different locations, before being played and re-played many times during the investigation, with multiple copies needing to be made for all parties concerned. As a result, in addition to the serious security issues raised in terms of transportation, investigators will also need to deal with the deterioration of audio quality every time a new copy of a tape is made.

With a digital recording solution, however, interviews can be recorded, accessed and stored securely, with crystal-clear audio and video that can be stored on a central server. This means that important interviews can be accessed and viewed by numerous people, regardless of their physical location. Authorised personnel can even monitor interviews remotely — in real time — and for added time-savings, can also mark the recordings with digital 'bookmarks', making it faster and easier to find specific parts of an interview at a later date, at any point in the investigation, and even during court proceedings.

Secure, accurate and safe

Server-based digital recordings are already saving a significant amount of time and money for several UK police forces, while also ensuring that their evidence is presented securely, accurately and safely. This kind of technology, known as 'straight-to-server' digital recording, has already been installed at Teesside University for their police training course, and is being looked at closely by the National Police Improvement Agency, as well as a number of high street retail chains for use in their fraud and loss prevention departments.

Insurance fraud investigators can now use this digital interviewing and recording technology to assist in the detection and reduction of insurance fraud by conducting thorough and legally compliant investigations that will help to protect their assets from fraud and help guard against this increasing threat to their revenues.

After all, interviews with claimants can often provide key information in a fraud case, as interviewees will often contradict their own account of events, even during the course of a single conversation. For example, the value of items that have been stolen will often change, or the time and date of an injury given during an interview might contradict a doctor's report. Recorded interviews with employers, spouses and neighbours can also deliver interesting results, and can often provide fraud investigators with an important piece of the puzzle that will enable insurers to identify and repudiate a claim.

The National Fraud Strategic Authority has called for better information sharing to help in the fight against fraud. A server-based system can enable many different bodies, including the Financial Ombudsman Service — which is often involved in cases a long time down the line — to help with the investigation and to make a better assessment of whether fraud has been committed.

For all of these reasons, along with the fact that handwritten notes and analogue tape systems are becoming both outdated and unreliable, a move to digital recording — and ultimately a server-based solution — is without a doubt the way forward for improved efficiency, better security and lower costs for insurance companies that need to combat the growing problem of fraud on a daily basis.

Simon Jones is UK manager for Indico Systems