OREANDA-NEWS. February 09, 2009. Based upon the results of its operation in 2008, ROSNO’s Security Department states that fraudsters are still interested in cheating insurance companies, reported the press-centre of ROSNO.

As before, foul play is most widespread in such insurance fields as automobile insurance and property insurance. The company’s experts note that, despite the decreasing frequency of fraudulent cases, which can be attributed to the company’s consistent safety policy, such cases are yet becoming more sophisticated. Dishonest individuals commit fraud using state-of-the-art communication facilities and devices, deeply elaborated feigns and conspiracies, and forgery.

As compared to 2007, the quantity of insured accidents investigated by the Security Department has considerably decreased (by 20%). This is the result of the company’s coordinated policy enabling the Security Department to build a multilevel filtration system used to examine each insured accident.

The presented facts are verified not only by employees of the Security Department, but also by all specialists related to the claim processing and settlement — from document acceptance to decision-making on insurance compensations. Such approach minimizes the potential playground for fraudsters. This work also gradually causes fraudsters to shift their interest from large insurance market players to smaller companies with no sophisticated security systems.

"Just as expected in 2007, the major trend of the year 2008 is the fraudsters’ shift from quantity to quality. The amounts luring fraudsters into taking risks have increased. Anticipating this situation in early 2008, ROSNO’s Security Department has strengthened its positions both in Moscow and in the regions. Following its strategy in combating unlawful conduct, the company set up the Counter-Fraud Department on the basis of the investigation division. The company has also been implementing the program of combating in-house fraud, enabling it to suppress unlawful conduct among the company employees (over 18 cases). The serious attitude of ROSNO and the company’s shareholders towards business information security enabled successful completion of regular audit of the Business Information Security Management System and certification of its compliance with the international standard ISO/IES 27001. I am confident that these measures will allow us to further improve our performance, while guaranteeing protection of interests of bona fide insurants and employees", commented on the year results Mr. Alexey Bebnev, head of ROSNO’s Counter-Fraud Department.

The undertaken efforts and structural changes made it possible for ROSNO to prevent fraud-related payments for the total amount exceeding 15 million US dollars. (This represents 200% growth vs. the year 2007.).

The interaction between ROSNO and police units resulted in 25 criminal charges instituted. The nature of investigated cases is varying. Here are some examples.

Under a property insurance contract, ROSNO had provided insurance coverage for jewellery. Ten days after, a representative of the insured company reported a smash-and-grab raid on their office. The assailants threatened firearms to bind the company director to a chair, then fired a shot to the floor and took 120 million roubles worth of jewellery with them. The materials and facts collected in joint action of the Security Department and enforcement agencies enabled the investigators to prove that the entire case of assault and stolen jewellery had been staged. The criminal case on the smash-and-grab raid was closed. In its turn, ROSNO prepared materials for opening of a fraud case against the guilty individuals.

In 2008, the Security Department uncovered and exposed the group of individuals attempting to remit funds from ROSNO accounts to the accounts of specifically established fly-by-night companies, by submitting forged payment orders to the Moscow banks. Thanks to the prompt actions of ROSNO’s Security Department and the company’s financial divisions, the scammers’ evil design was discovered at an early stage. Subsequently, coordination with enforcement agencies enabled criminal charges to be instituted and brought to court. During the search at the apartment rented by suspects, forged seals and letterheads with logos of various entities were seized. The prevented loss equalled 50 million roubles for ROSNO alone.

Another real-life example of performance of ROSNO’s Security Department: the insurant F had contacted the company branch in order to receive the MOD insurance compensation of 273,000 roubles for the damage inflicted to his car in a traffic accident (collision with road barrier).

The investigation conducted by the Security Department employees established that F’s brother had previously been receiving insurance compensations from OJSC ROSNO and another large insurer after similar traffic accidents involving the same car and similar damage. During clarification of other circumstances, it was determined that one of the brothers had previously been convicted under the Article 119 (Threat of murder) and the Article 159 (Fraud) of the RF Criminal Code.

Also, this insurance investigation has uncovered unlawful conduct of the road policemen who had assisted the F brothers’ "family business" by registering the invented traffic accident. These facts have laid basis for the opening of a criminal case.