Apparently one in ten British people have committed travel insurance fraud. Sure, most will have made exaggerations, rather than having claimed to have been robbed of their million pound winning lottery ticket, but its still a substantial amount of lies. Worse, the subsequent increased premiums hit the pockets of the honest undeserving folks who use their UK travel insurance in legitimate ways.

It’s not all bad though, and it makes it all the more rewarding when those cheap travel insurance scammers are exposed – especially in the manner in which some of these holiday makers’ shame was made public:

It’s best to be Original…

It’s perhaps best that those without a creative bone in their body don’t make up some weird and wonderful UK travel insurance claims, because all too often they’ll run out of innovation and tell the same story twice. Well, twice would be understandable, but what about the man who claimed costs for having his appendix removed no less than eight times while on holiday in Cyprus? On the other hand some people are incredibly creative, but make a simple error – like the woman who claimed for the loss of the same eye five times, with different explanations each time. These unique stories included losing it during an attack, and while jumping into a swimming pool!

That’s not included in the Cover

Another man had a heart attack while in West Africa. Part of his claim for costs included the receipt from a brothel, which turned out to be the backdrop to his cardiac development. It emerges that the man felt he did not get full value from the experience, so thought his UK travel insurance company should foot the bill for the visit!

Don’t blame the Apes!

In another instance of holiday makers being imaginative with their travel insurance claims, a couple told their insurers that apes had stolen their expensive video cameras while they shot footage of them in Gibraltar. The truth turned out to be far less exciting – they’d just been dropped and broken.

Of course, it’s not just the world of cheap travel insurance that gets scammed – here’s some of the best from other industries…

Hell hath no fury…

Having just successfully claimed £385,000 worth of compensation, a man was reported by his wife for exaggerating the injuries he had suffered in a car crash. He’d been pretending to be crippled for three years, so why did the wife turn him in only when he got the payout? He’d just announced his plans to leave her!

Bang to Rights

But my personal favourite is the man who had been claiming compensation for being unable to work following an accident. A quite reasonable claim, until his amateur football team proclaimed him their player of the year, and his photograph appeared in the local newspaper. Unsurprisingly, his insurance company were more than happy to hear of this interesting revelation…

While hundreds of people commit travel insurance fraud every year, if you’re tempted, just remember this: You’re only hurting yourself! The huge numbers of people committing travel insurance fraud are directly responsible for the higher premiums everyone pays!