But in industrialised countries like the United States and England, insurance fraud is a major problem that receives serious attention. It troubles insurance brokers, transnational corporations and governments.
In the US, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud (CAIF) estimates that fraudulent insurance claims amount to at least US $80 billion every year. Healthcare insurance fraud is said to be a particularly serious issue. The National Health Care Anti-fraud Association (NHCAA) estimates that at least three percent - over $50 billion - of the nation's annual health care outlay is lost to outright fraud. A study by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) shows that one in 10 adults - five million people - admit to having made a fraudulent claim on general insurance policies, such as home or motor vehicle insurance. It was revealed that opportunistic fraud carried out by individual customers alone costs over 800 million sterling annually. In total, the ABI estimates that insurance fraud costs nearly 2 billion. According to the Financial Services Authority, insurance fraud as a whole costs the UK economy around 14-20 billion a year.
