For the purpose of reviewing, assessing the reality of life insurance fraud prevention of relevant agencies in Vietnam in the recent years as well as sharing international experience in such field, the workshop attracted a large number of delegates, experts from agencies, institutions and organizations in the country and internationally. During the workshop, the participants made their presentation on identifying life insurance fraud; forms, tricks of life insurance fraud in Vietnam and coordination between the life insurance companies and the law enforcement agencies in fighting against life insurance fraud; sharing difficulties in investigating the cases relating to life insurance fraud by the investigation economic crime police force; exchanging of international and internal experiences in fighting against life insurance fraud related crime and finding out solutions to improve the effectiveness of preventing this type of crime.

Accordingly, life insurance fraud is an act of intended deception to gain illicit benefit for their own or a third one when exchanging life insurance. The tricks of life insurance fraud commonly are: benefiting illegally from insurance compensation when being hospitalization, surgery, accident or death; colluding with customers to benefiting illegally from insurance compensation; appropriating customers’ life insurance premium, taking advantage of the insurance company’s prestige to appropriating customer’s property; counterfeiting customer profile to get benefit percentage.

Participants discussed at the workshop

Discussing about difficulties in the process of investigating the cases of life insurance fraud, the participants emphasized that offenders often used sophisticated and new modus-operandi or colluding with the related ones as doctors, traffic police, witness...; as the insurance fraud cases often lacked of witnesses, material evidence… In addition, the penalty for insurance fraud was not strick, the law on insurance fraud, lack of sanctions on treatment and coordination in fighting against the insurance fraud, lack of testing, controlling and handling insurance fraud… therefore, the insurance business became untransparent which made rising of insurance fraud related crime.

To help improve the efficiency of fighting against life insurance fraud related crime, the participants proposed a number of measures such as:

- Building and supplementing, completmenting legal documents relating to the insurance, and the prevention of insurance fraud.

- Promoting the inspection and supervision of compliance with the regulations on the prevention of insurance fraud, and promoting the work of investigation, prosecution and adjudication of  such crime.

- Establishing, organizing and facilitating for the functional forces to implement the prevention of insurance fraud and coordinate with relevant agencies to prevent activities of insurance fraud.

- Coordinating with international organizations, insurance businesses in cooperation, exchange of information, experiences on crime prevention relating to insurance fraud; strengthening propaganda for the mass of people to improve awareness of the negative impact of insurance fraud.

- The insuarance company must actively prevent crime; research, supplement and promulge a strict working process, establishing a effective control system to ensure that all insurance exchanging activities take place seriously in any circumstances; actively cooperate with the police agencies to promptly detect and arrest such criminals.

Translated by Gia Linh