Fronting

People have always been sneaky. Trying to dodge taxes and little fines and fees that people don’t really want to pay has been a favourite pastime for the human race ever since we evolved that ability to pay for things with other things instead of just hitting people over the head with clubs and then taking it. The modern age with its truly mind-boggling scope of financial institutions, tax regulations and small print has opened up a million new ways of trying to wriggle out of things.

However, the advance of electronic information storing means that it has also never been so hard to be caught. Case and point: fronting on your home insurance policy. This is a perfect example. Insurance is a bizarre human invention in the first place, and to many people the fact that some companies are willing to replace items that they have never seen before suggests endless scope for ripping them off.

However, a recent news release has warned that 'fronting' home contents insurance policies can count as fraud. Fronting involves putting an incorrect name on a home insurance policy, a practice adopted by some fraudsters to enable them to get cheaper home insurance premiums.

Darren Black, head of the home insurance website that has drawn attention to the practice, said that falsifying names on documents in this manner could lead insurance companies to invalidate a customer's whole policy. He stated that ‘if it is discovered that the information provided was not an accurate or true representation of their insurance needs, the provider has every right to decline all subsequent claims.’

So, be warned people. It might be incredibly appealing to try and get one over on the big faceless insurance companies, but it can backfire massively. I know of a recent newspaper article saying that Kwik Fit Insurance had just recouped thousands of pounds from people who had been found guilty of fronting on a home insurance policy and that some of these people had actually received prison sentences. Scary stuff.