Insurance Fraud in Korea, Its Seriousness, and Policy Implications

Several characteristics of insurance fraud including its chronic nature justifies the need for identifying feasible proposals which can be expected to bring about significant impacts. Recent statistics show that insurance fraud is now consistently on the increase. However, insurance fraud is highly fragmented and each offence is not significant enough to elicit active interest among the public or interventions from the police. Three problems have been identified and diagnosed. These were a lack of awareness, an absence of a national leadership and also limited attention directed to insurance fraud by the investigating authorities. Based on these, three recommendations have been suggested. (1) Embarking on and developing a national initiative by central government, (2) Taking a dynamic concentration approach to send deterrent threats to potential fraudsters, and (3) Using big data technologies to detect clandestine activities by organised groups.