talkmagic.co.uk

Mandrake wrote:The Compensation Culture...someone else's fault...someone else will pay....

Screws it for those who genuinely deserve any compensation and we all end up paying anyway in terms of increased prices and premiums.

Another aspect of the concept of Thatcher's Legacy, perhaps?

Is it true that insurance companies use lie detector software? My wife called about the broken laptop yesterday and they grilled her for thirty minutes, asking questions like, "what was your daughter's reaction when she spilt the coffee on the laptop?" Seems like an odd question to ask and I can only assume they want to see what your reaction is and how you answer the question. I suppose if you were making a fraudulent claim, that sort of question would throw you and the software would pick up on it.

Replicant wrote:Is it true that insurance companies use lie detector software? .

Ecko has more up-to-date knowledge than I, but I occasionally do a little financial crime management consultancy for FSA regulated companies including insurance companies.

While this software exists, the false positives, overall rate of success and the view that financial crime is a cost of doing business means that the most effective computer is that soft pink one inside people's heads.

The only problem is that people try to solve problems when what they should do is escalate to the authority charged with making a decision (like the anti-money laundering officer or compliance).

The analysis is more likely to come in things like using software like Norkom or SAS, doing smarts like address pattern matching and re-flagging claims. The ABI has a crime database of dodgy people and dodgy claims and look for certain events. Car insurance particularly has a lot of statistics available for mining.

In your case, I suspect that the claims processor is fishing for anything thas smells wrong, but I defer to Ecko.

The whole psychology of why people are prepared to steal from an insurance company but not,say, Tesco or thier neighbour is quite interesting; the insurance company really does not "get" the average punter's view (IMHO).

Stealing from an insurance company is actually not too difficult to acheive if you just think a little creatively. If you knew the internal processes you (and the FSA) would have a fit, but you also be very rich. You'd get caught of course unless you did this: ********

Not heard of anyone using lie detector software. Sounds a bit scary to me!

And yes, the claims process does involve lots of questions.
People can be a bit daft when they put in fraudulent claims.

Example: Someone buys a policy online at 10:42am
They phone up at 11am to make a claim for an accident they've "just" had.
No no no they insist, it was after they bought the policy. The police have just been and filed a report.

"So the report was filed about 10:30 then?"
"Er yeah, something like that. Maybe a bit before that"
"So the accident occurred before 10:42?"
"er... oh, no, it must have been later than that!"
"Hold the line for me, I just need to pass you through to the fraud prevention team"
*client hangs up*

Depending on the value of the laptop they may not require a receipt or to see the actual damaged laptop. A bit of a grilling just makes sure they're not paying out on an obviously fraudulent claim.

Rep, refer them to me, I'l give them a character witness

EckoZero wrote:Rep, refer them to me, I'l give them a character witness

Cheers, matey, but not required. The insurance company have referred us to a company called Power Play who have arranged to collect the laptop so they can have a look at it and a) repair it, or b) give us a new laptop of similar specification. They will also attempt data recovery on the hard disk.

The laptop still smells of coffee, too. Every time I open it, I feel like munching on a croissant.

Replicant wrote:The laptop still smells of coffee, too. Every time I open it, I feel like munching on a croissant.

I wouldn't if I were you, the crumbs can get stuck under the keys... :p

You ever picked up a computer keyboard, turned it upside-down and given it a good shake? It's a good thing eye lashes grow back! Croissant crumbs is the least of your worries.

http://crm.nemesysco.com/ra5.html


esure started doing this in 2003
http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=112808

A small correction to the earlier story about the Americal lawyer who claimed his cigars had been lost in a series of small fires. He actually succeeded in his claim, and the insurance company had to pay out. It was then that they made a complaint to the police and he was charged with carrying out a series of arsons.
I was a court reporter for a while and saw some great claims. I remember one man who tried to claim after an accident. It turned out he had already had five claims, while his wife had had four. The judge said that he seemed to be trying to turn litigation into a cottage industry, and threw out the case.
What did the guy do? He sued me for libel for reporting the judges comments.
I remember another case, which involved a cop who had injured his back on the job. He told a very convincing story about how his life was destroyed. He could no longer engage in physical activity, and his sex life was almost non-existant.
Then it was time for cross-examination. The insurance company had a private detective who had taken some photos.
"Is this a picture of you playing rugby?" Oh dear.
Things were going badly for the cop. Then the insurance company produced yet another photo.
"Is this a picture of you dancing with your wife at a disco after the rugby game?"
The picture showed the cop in a steamy clinch with a good-looking woman. But it wasn't his wife.
Not only was his case thrown out, he was thrown out.

Just goes to show its unwise to f*** with the powers that be.

Sorry guys, the cigar story is false

Why do you have to spoil our fun?

Haven't you noticed? Kolm doesn't post about Magic.

Lenoir wrote:Haven't you noticed? Kolm doesn't post about Magic.

It's been years since someone blew a raspberry at me!