Thanks to help from British Columbians, ICBC is catching more insurance fraudsters.
After releasing a fraud awareness campaign earlier this year, ICBC received nearly 300 more tips in this year’s first quarter than in 2015. That was 70% boost.
Chris Fairbridge is a Special Investigations Unit Manager. He says about 10% – 20% of insurance claims are false or exaggerated, which affects all drivers.
“We’re letting people know how it actually impacts them in their own pocket books and we’re saying that that’s over $100 when they go to pay for their insurance. I think people look at that and they think ‘you know what, this isn’t a victimless crime. This is actually impacting me personally.'”
Across the Province, he says the false claims add up to around $600 million a year.
The company has already completed more than 5,000 claims in drivers licensing investigations so far this year.
Since 2012, 520 people have been criminally charged for fraudulent insurance claims.