Police to Intensify Crackdown on Traffic Accident Insurance Fraud Starting Tomorrow

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The National Police Agency’s National Investigation Headquarters announced on the 20th that it will intensively crack down on traffic accident insurance fraud crimes for seven months from the 21st through October.

The police will deploy 581 personnel from 157 traffic crime investigation teams for this crackdown. The scope of the crackdown will be expanded to include intentional traffic accidents, exaggerated reports after traffic accidents, false or exaggerated insurance claims from hospitals and repair shops, similar crimes such as deceiving and extorting settlement money directly from the traffic accident perpetrators after intentional accidents, and even attempted crimes. In addition, accounts for victim insurance payments will be promptly frozen, and criminal proceeds will be actively confiscated and collected. The police also plan to reverse increased insurance premiums and administrative penalties (demerit points) imposed on traffic accident perpetrators who were unfairly involved in insurance fraud, focusing on actual damage recovery. Furthermore, the police will analyze environmental causes in locations where insurance fraud frequently occurs, install additional CCTV (closed-circuit television), and simultaneously improve traffic facilities.

Last year, the police also detected a total of 513 cases of traffic accident insurance fraud through intensive crackdowns, arresting 2,424 people, including 79 who were detained. At the Incheon Police Agency, 71 people including insurance planners who intentionally caused 139 traffic accidents targeting vehicles violating traffic laws and fraudulently extorted about 1.1 billion won were arrested. At the Bucheon Wonmi Police Station, 24 people who intentionally caused accidents using imported cars over six years and embezzled 500 million won were apprehended.

Despite such crackdown activities, traffic accident insurance fraud damages have continued to increase over the past three years. According to statistics from the Financial Supervisory Service, the damage amount increased by 12% from 443.6 billion won in 2018 to 497.4 billion won in 2020, and the number of detected individuals rose by 20.4% from 58,938 to 70,949 during the same period. The police expressed concern that ordinary people such as office workers (19.4%), housewives (10.8%), unemployed/daily workers (10.5%), and students (4.7%) are also easily exposed to the temptation of committing these crimes. A National Police Agency official said, “Traffic accident insurance fraud causes increased insurance premiums for the insured general public, increasing their economic burden, and is a chronic crime that threatens public safety through intentional traffic accidents, causing serious social harm,” urging active reporting.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.