Article Reviewed by a licensed insurance professional: Sam Meenasian (CA dept of insurance license #0F75955).
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Key Takeaways
- Cybercrime and insurance fraud are increasingly connected, posing risks for small business owners.
- Criminals now prioritize data theft, enabling them to file false claims and commit insurance fraud.
- Common fraud pathways include email account takeovers, stolen vendor invoices, and fake injury claims.
- Business owners can protect themselves with strong passwords, secure devices, and verified banking changes.
- Businesses need to strengthen digital habits to prevent cybercrime and related insurance issues.
If you’re like most contractors and small business owners, your first thought about cybercrime is a technology issue. And the same is true with insurance fraud. For most small business owners, fraud claims come in the form of a staged accident, forged document, or fake injury. Many owners assume it won’t be a hacker, but small businesses are commonly targeted—especially through email-based scams.
Except. Cybercrime and insurance fraud are increasingly connected. In fact, they’re overlapping more often, and in ways that have surprised even well-meaning small businesses.
Contractors. Retailers. Food-service pros. Light manufacturers. Welders. Plumbers. Electricians. Any business professionals who handle customer data, touch electronic payments, or use digital devices and apps as part of their work are at risk.
Insurance fraud and cybercrime used to be separate issues. These days, the connection is real. It’s showing up in actual claims. Actual disputes. Actual financial headaches that are bad for business.
Why Cybercrime Now Fuels More Insurance Fraud
Cybercrime often focuses on quick, direct payoffs. Today, many criminals prioritize data and access because it enables larger fraud later.
These days, criminals are in it for the long con. They steal data instead of cash. Employee records. Customer information. Invoices. Policy numbers. Payment data. User credentials. The list goes on.
Then the data gets used to create fake claims. False documents. Phony losses. Insurance fraud is one of the payoffs criminals may pursue after stealing data, the payoff that often follows a cyberattack.
Digital Data Became the New Currency
In the digital age, almost everything businesses do gets saved or stored somewhere. Job-site photos. Estimates. Receipts. Vendor records. Tax documents. Customer addresses. Account numbers. Payroll records. Scheduling notes. You name it.
If your phone/tablet isn’t protected, a thief may gain access to saved passwords, email, photos, and attachments.
Criminals didn’t have to be geniuses to figure out that instead of breaking into a business, grabbing cash, and running, it was far more profitable to get access to the data and turn it into fraudulent claims.
Stolen customer data can be used to file false injury claims. Stolen business credentials allow criminals to reroute a claim payment. Stolen vendor invoices let criminals submit phony requests for reimbursement.
The headache that this causes often doesn’t stay in the digital world. It bleeds into physical claims. Liability disputes. Even workers’ comp losses.
Insurance Processes Moved Online
Years ago, insurance involved paper documents, phone calls, and in-person meetings. These days, almost everything from filing a claim to updating a policy to requesting a certificate of insurance gets done through online portals and emailed attachments.
Convenient? You bet. Secure without some extra layers of protection? Not necessarily.
If criminals can get access to email accounts, they can submit claims in the business owner’s name. They can redirect routing numbers. Request fraudulent certificates of insurance. Change an address on file. And even take over the conversations between an adjuster and a business.
Cybercrime opens the door. Insurance fraud is the payout.
How Cybercriminals Turn Data Into Insurance Fraud
Email Account Takeover
A criminal accesses a company’s email account, possibly by clicking on a phishing link, or possibly because the password was the same one that the employee used on multiple websites. The criminal then does something that seems innocuous. They lurk.
The criminal monitors and tracks the email conversation the business is having with adjusters, customers, subcontractors, and suppliers. They save invoice templates. They study how the business owner writes emails. Then they wait for an opportunity.
Eventually, the criminal will send an email message with a claim payout request to “send the money to a new bank account.” If no one double-checks, the payout will be stolen. And the business may end up in an argument with an insurance carrier over who’s liable.
Fake Injury Claims Using Stolen Employee Data
Stolen employee information can be used to attempt fraudulent claims or impersonation. When insurers/TPAs investigate, the paperwork may include real details pulled from compromised records.
An employer is shocked when they are notified that one of their employees was injured on a job they were not even on. And the fraudulent claim paperwork often contains real information taken from the business’s system.
What Business Owners Can Do to Protect Themselves
None of this has to mean that you need to hire a cybersecurity firm or become a technology expert. There are some basic habits that a business can put in place to make cybercrime less likely and insurance-fraud headaches less likely, too.
Lock Down Email Accounts
Shocking as it may sound, a ton of fraud begins by stealing a simple password. Use strong, unique passwords. Turn on multi-factor authentication. Always log out of computers not in use. Disable email auto-forwarding unless it’s necessary. Keep your business email account separate from personal accounts.
A locked truck door keeps your tools safe. A locked email account keeps your claims safe.
Secure Job-Site Devices and Mobile Phones
Tablets and phones often contain more sensitive information than the office computer does. Require a passcode. Turn on remote-wipe features. Disable file downloads unless necessary. Encrypt any sensitive documents. Stay off sketchy Wi-Fi networks.
That tablet in the back of your work truck may have years of customer records in it.
Verify All Banking or Routing Changes
If you ever get an email requesting to send a claim payout to a “new bank account,” or to update business banking information, or update payment information for a supplier, call that supplier or insurance company first.
Pick up the phone and call the insurer or vendor directly. Never trust a routing or banking change to an email message alone.
Key Takeaways
Cybercrime now fuels insurance fraud more frequently than ever before because data theft can be easily converted into fake claims and illegal payouts.
Small businesses are most impacted by this risk because criminals know small businesses often over-rely on email and lack strong cybersecurity habits.s
Email account takeovers, stolen vendor invoices, fake claims, and vendor data breaches are the most common pathways that lead to insurance fraud.
Simple best practices like strong passwords, locked devices, verified banking changes, and employee training can block most fraud attempts.
If your business uses a phone, tablet, or email, and let’s face it, every business does use at least one of those, your company is connected to cybercrime in ways that can very easily translate into the insurance claims world.
That’s why it’s just as important to strengthen your digital habits as it is to lock up your tools or secure your shop.
USA Business Insurance offers insurance solutions to artisan contractors, retailers, manufacturers, welders, plumbers, handymen, hood cleaners, and dozens of other trades in all 50 states. We could help you protect your company from the growing wave of cybercrime and insurance fraud so you could run your business with more confidence.
