It appears that fraudsters do indeed learn the error of their ways as they get older according to evidence from VFM Services.

The latest figures come from the claims experience of the total claims submitted to VFM by its insurer clients in 2014, and are compared year-on-year since 2011 to identify key trends in fraudulent behaviour.

According to VFM’s claims statistics, fraudsters are most likely to be aged under 21, with the chances that a claimant is fraudulent decreasing steadily as they get older.  VFM found that between 2011 and 2014 50% of the claimants aged under 21 passed to them for fraud investigation were proved to be fraudulent, followed by 34% of those within the 21-35 age bracket and just over 30% of claimants aged 36-45.  With the number decreasing to just 26% in claimants aged 46-65.  The incidence of fraud is by far the lowest with claimants aged 65+, only 21% of whom were identified as fraudulent.

Sally Griffiths, Director of VFM Services, says that there have been clear fraud trends in age:

“We regularly feedback our MI to our insurer clients, and the trends we identify often help to inform their counter fraud and underwriting strategies.   I would however raise a point of caution.  Whilst we believe it is important to highlight these trends to insurers and flag those demographics and groups more likely to commit fraud, this information should not be relied upon in isolation.  Just knowing a person is more likely to commit particular types of fraud due to their age is not enough; we must treat all claimants as honest until they are proven otherwise.”

“Talking to claimants in a customer-centric and structured way quickly identifies and fast tracks honest claimants whilst filtering out the fraudsters. Through skilled questioning, conversation management often prevents the fraud from taking place, or identifies the fraud so that the claim can be repudiated quickly and efficiently.”