Confused to alert insurers about ghost brokers and fraud rings

Confused.com has teamed up with data firm Experian to launch a fraudulent quotation alert service for insurers.

Confused claims it will be the first price comparison site to provide UK insurers with real-time alerts to identify high-risk and fraudulent quotations  from suspicious devices.

The service will initially tackle ghost brokers and organised fraud networks in a bid to bring down the estimated £2bn annual cost of fraud to the insurance industry.

Confused is using Experian’s 41st Parameter FraudNet technology to provide a real time assessment of quotes posing a fraud risk. From April 2015, the system will be in place to help insurers identify potentially suspicious devices that pose a threat of generating fraudulent quotations.

Confused head of compliance Greg Steel said: “Aggregators such as Confused.com face a number of different threats, and ghost brokers, who are fraudsters posing as legitimate middlemen who can cut insurance costs, in particular take advantage of online platforms to find cheap premiums. Working with Experian, we will now be the first price comparison site to offer insurers an effective fraud risk score as part of the quotation service.”

Director of Experian’s fraud and identity business Charlie Connor added: “Our work with Confused.com is evidence of our continuing commitment to protect innocent people from being the victims of increasingly sophisticated fraudsters and to reduce the cost of fraud with its impact on insurance premiums.”