Insurance fraud investigation tools for New Zealand teams

Most questionable claims are not exposed by a single dramatic finding. They are exposed by small inconsistencies that only become visible when several licensed sources are read together: an insured address the claimant has not been associated with for two years, a property held by a trust rather than the named insured, a security interest registered over the item said to be owned outright, or an insolvency event that gives the loss an uncomfortable motive and timing.

Each of those checks is available separately, which is exactly the problem. A claims handler working within service standards will not run five separate provider searches on a moderate-value claim, so the inconsistency is never surfaced and the claim is paid or declined on incomplete information. intelID returns identity and address data, property and title ownership, PPSR registrations, company and director records and insolvency events from one enquiry, which puts the check inside the handler's normal cycle time rather than outside it.

For special investigation units the same consolidation shortens the front end of a file. Related entities and directorships are visible immediately, so connections between a claimant, a supplier and a repairer can be tested before an investigator is instructed. No result should be treated as a determination of fraud: it is licensed information that supports the decision an assessor or investigator makes.

A typical claims enquiry combines identity verification of the claimant, property title searches to confirm who owns the insured property, PPSR searches to check for undisclosed security interests, and company and director searches to map related entities between a claimant, a supplier and a repairer. Where the loss timing looks connected to financial distress, an insolvency search confirms whether a formal process is already underway.

Underlying registers include LINZ title data, the PPSR, the Companies Office register and the Insolvency and Trustee Service. Media archive reporting and published court and tribunal decisions add prior claims, proceedings and adjudicated findings to the file. Also available: individual and commercial credit checks and sanctions, watchlist and adverse media screening.

A claims investigation still has to satisfy the Privacy Act 2020 test that collection is for a lawful purpose connected with the insurer's functions and limited to what that purpose needs. Suspicion is not itself a licence to run every available search on a claimant; the enquiry should track the specific inconsistency being tested, and the declared purpose should say so.

1. Confirm claimant identity against policy details.
2. Check registered ownership of the insured property or item.
3. Check the PPSR for undisclosed security interests over the insured item.
4. Map related entities where a supplier, repairer or third party is involved.
5. Check insolvency status where the timing of the loss raises a question.
6. Record the declared purpose and findings against the claim file for the assessor's decision.

A total loss claim is lodged for a vehicle said to be owned outright. A PPSR search returns a registered financing statement over the vehicle from a finance company. A company search on the repairer nominated by the claimant shows a shared director with the claimant's stated employer. Neither fact resolves the claim; both are passed to the assessor as part of the file before a settlement decision is made. No claimant identity or claim outcome is described here.

Insurers carry privacy obligations across a high volume of enquiries made by staff under time pressure, and credit reporting information carries the additional obligations of the Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2020. The risk is not usually a deliberate misuse. It is an enquiry made on a file where the purpose was never articulated, discovered later with no record to explain it.

intelID requires an authorised-purpose declaration before results are returned on every search, then logs that declaration with the user, the timestamp and the sources queried. Role-based access separates underwriting, claims and investigation reach. The log is immutable to the user who created it, so an internal audit, a Privacy Commissioner enquiry or a complaint from a claimant can be answered from evidence.

Subject data is not used for marketing, is not resold, and is never exposed to public indexing. Hosting is on Google Cloud Platform with encryption in transit and at rest, and the vendor security programme is benchmarked to SOC 2 Type II providers. Detail sits on the security page and the compliance page.

Subject data is not used for marketing, is not resold, and is not exposed to public indexing. How a trace runs end to end is on the skip tracing page, the workflow on the platform page, every integrated source and its legal basis on the data sources page, hosting and encryption on the security page, and the statutory position on the compliance page. Pricing is a monthly subscription plus a per-search fee, published on the pricing page.

Identity verification, property title searches, PPSR searches and company and director searches.

Verifying an identity without breaching privacy.