Systemic document fraud: how insurers can respond effectively

Document fraud has become one of the most scalable and elusive enablers of financial crime. It’s fast to execute, easy to replicate and difficult to detect with legacy defences still present across insurance.

The threat lies not only in the sophistication of these fakes, but in their reuse. With generative AI and template farms widely accessible, fraudulent documents aren’t used once. They’re engineered for repetition and circulated across insurers and the financial sector at large, in coordinated attacks designed to evade detection.

46% of fake documents involve manipulated financial or identity information - highlighting how central they are to modern fraud typologies. And with the use of apps to distort images, videos and documents increasing by 300% in recent years, the scale and speed of digital forgery is accelerating fast.

As a result, document fraud has quickly become a headline strategic vulnerability. A threat hiding in plain sight that demands coordinated, strategic response from insurance leadership.

The priority: switch from tactical fixes to strategic intervention

To meet the growing challenge of document fraud, insurers must move beyond piecemeal responses and embrace more strategic, coordinated approaches.

This is because the cost of document fraud isn’t limited to inflated claims. Fake documents can delay genuine customers, erode trust in automation and create fertile ground for organised fraud to thrive.

Some insurers have responded with tactical fixes: adding more tools, introducing manual checks, and investing more time in document reviews. But document fraud is a scaled, evolving threat that cannot be out-investigated. The real solution lies in strategic intervention, with a single overarching priority: achieving greater visibility to enable faster, more confident decision-making.

Solutions that combine AI with syndicated intelligence across organisations are already proving more effective. These approaches detect 35% more document fraud than siloed methods, underscoring the power of intelligent collaboration over reactive inspection.

3 strategic shifts market leaders are making to control document fraud

This strategic shift is already underway. Market leaders are moving beyond detection to disruption, guided by one principle: enhanced visibility.

The most effective interventions against fake documents share three defining features, each designed to bring fraud out of the shadows and into the spotlight.

1. Reframing document fraud as a network risk

Document fraud is rarely limited to one organisation. When multiple insurers have visibility of how and where a document has been used, they can identify repeat claims linked to the same falsified evidence. This kind of cross-sector intelligence is critical in tackling organised fraud at source.

2. Improving the confidence to automate

Document anomalies alone rarely provide enough evidence to act decisively. What gives teams confidence is corroborated data: knowing a document has been involved in previous fraud attempts. This allows risk scores to be trusted, automation to be used responsibly, and decisioning to become more consistent.

3. Consolidating insight and action

The complexity of managing fraud across multiple systems slows the teams you’re leading down. Insurers with the upper hand against document fraud are consolidating tools and insights into unified platforms, so investigators can move quickly without switching between systems or revalidating information.

A critical inflection point for insurance risk

The rise of document fraud marks a turning point for those at the forefront of insurance risk strategy. The pressure to react tactically - and respond to a technology-driven threat unfolding in real-time - is strong.

However, by elevating focus from operational problem to systemic threat, insurers can make far greater impact on a fraud that defines claims performance, customer experience and long-term resilience.

With the right strategic focus, document fraud becomes not just manageable but preventable. This requires asking questions like:

• Can we see fraud the moment it scales, not after the damage is done?
• Are we sharing intelligence fast enough to cut repeat fraud off at the source?
• Are we still treating document fraud as case-by-case noise or recognising it as a coordinated business risk?

But most importantly, insurer focus must be on collaboration using shared intelligence. Insurers that lead in this area will move faster, waste less time and protect more value - not just for their business, but for the market as a whole.