Fraudsters editing vehicle photos to add fake damage in UK insurance scam

A surge in fraud cases in which photos are manipulated to show fake car crash damage is alarming insurers and helping to push motor insurance costs up to record levels.

The insurer Allianz said incidents where apps were used to distort real-life images, videos and documents increased by 300% between 2021-22 and 2022-23, and it added that this had “all the signs of becoming the latest big scam to hit the insurance industry”.

Rival insurer Zurich UK said it was also seeing more and more claims that had been doctored using so-called “shallowfake” technology, and that this was “becoming one of the most emerging threats from a counter-fraud point of view”.

While deepfakes are hoax images, videos or documents typically created using AI, shallowfakes can be created using conventional editing software on a phone and apps such as Photoshop.

Allianz, which includes the general insurance arm of LV=, said in one case an individual had a photo of his van posted on his social media page as part of his business and ended up having a claim pursued in his name for an accident that never took place.

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