Reporting fraud
Find out how to report insurance fraud, what we do with the information you provide us, and how fraud reports are handled and investigated.
How to report fraud
You can let us know about any suspected general or fire insurance claims you’re concerned about by clicking any of the Report fraud buttons on this website, to complete our online form. Please note that the IFB do not investigate LIfe or Medical Insurance fraud.
If you don’t want to use our online form, you can:
- email fraud@ifb.org.nz
- call 0508 372 835
- or download and fill in the form
Remember: The more information you give us, the better.
Privacy
We adhere to the Privacy Act 2020, which protects individual privacy and governs the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. The Privacy Act protects both you and the person you report. That means any personal information you provide us will be kept confidential, and we won’t tell the person you reported anything about you. It also means we won’t tell you anything more about the status of your report once we have passed it to the insurer — including whether the insurer decides to open a full investigation.
Rest assured insurers take fraud seriously. Insurers review every fraud report they receive and decide whether a full investigation needs to be opened.
You can find out more by reading our full privacy policy.
Your personal information
The reporting form asks for information about who you are, but you can choose to remain anonymous. We ask for your contact details so investigators can get in touch with you if they need to clarify the information you have given or ask more questions.
Your personal information and anything else you provide us will be kept confidential and only shared where necessary for investigating your report, such as with the insurer of the person you reported. Anyone we need to share your information with is also bound by the Privacy Act.
The person you’ve reported to us will not be provided with any information about you or your report.
What happens next?
Once you submit the form, the IFB will assess it. The information you’ve provided will be checked against the Insurance Claims Register (ICR), where relevant, to confirm the identity of the person you have reported. It will then be passed on to the relevant insurer.
Find out more about the ICR
The insurer will then assess the information in the report against their claims records to determine whether an investigation is necessary.
If you have provided your contact details, an investigator from the insurance company may be in touch to ask further questions.
Still not sure?
Not sure whether what you’ve seen amounts to fraud? That’s ok. You can find out more about the different types of fraud on our Types of fraud page.
You can also call the IFB to discuss your concerns.
If you decide to submit a report and the behaviour you’ve described turns out to not be insurance fraud, there won’t be any negative consequences for you unless it can be proven you deliberately gave us false information.
Keep reading: Consequences of insurance fraud