Exploring the varied use of investigative interview techniques by the UK insurance industry, with a particular focus on communication over the phone in a counter fraud setting
Williams, Kirsten · UPT. Syiah Kuala University Library (Syiah Kuala University) · 2015
Fraud has a financial impact on the insurance sector and its customers. Insured have adopted many approaches to countering fraud, with some choosing a strategy which includes the used of telephone based interviews. These interviews have their routes in methods trained in the police, but have been adapted and developed to fit the commercial and customer service environment. Although there is a wealth of research on interviewing in law enforcement context, very little research exists in the private sector. This paper sought to explore the issue of interviewing over the phone as a component of insurance investigations with a view to generating themes that would be worthy of more detailed research. The research was divided into two separate approaches. The first, seeking detailed qualitative information from practitioner experts using semi-structured interviews, and the second, a questionnaire seeking a response from a wider sample of counter fraud practitioners in the sector. Overall the research indicated wide spread adoption of phone-based interviewing across the sector although the actual methods adopted are varied, and not easy to categorise in terms of a particular technique.