According to the Estonian Insurance Association (EKsL), last year 506 insurance frauds were proven with an attempt to defraud EUR 1.4 million. The largest increase of frauds was recorded in home insurance.

According to Ulli Reimets, head of loss prevention at EKsL, over a third of home insurance frauds were related to water accidents. "Insurance is intended to compensate for damage caused by an unexpected event. Using insurance to replace an old thing with a new one may seem tempting at first glance, but aging or wear and tear of something is not an insured event, and insurers do not consider such a risk in insurance premium calculation formulas. If the number of such frauds increases, it means that next payments for all of us will be higher, because we also pay for insurance frauds", Reimets explained.

"The vast majority, i.e. 400 insurance scams, were those with an attempt to defraud EUR 3,000. There were 30 frauds for over EUR 10,000, the largest amount was EUR 55,000", Reimets added.

In 2022, almost half of the insurance frauds were recorded in voluntary vehicle insurance or MoD (239), while home insurance frauds accounted for 27% (137 times). Motor insurance frauds accounted for 16% of all insurance fraud cases.