The Insurance Commision of Western Australia has announced a concerning rise over the past two years in the amount of motor injury insurance claims in WA, known as 'claims harvesting'.
Claims harvesting is the practice of unethically pursuing accident victims to encourage them to lodge a motor injury insurance claim.
Victims are often then encouraged to exaggerate or even lodge false claims.
Since 2015, the Insurance Commission has received 322 motor injury insurance claims it suspects originated via claims harvesting.
The Commission is working alongside the relevant Government entities to investigate these claims, a number of legal firms are suspected of involvement in claims harvesting.
Information is gathered in cold calls made to members of the public by people pretending to be from a crash investigation company or the Commission.
The callers may deceive the people involved in the crash by promising sums of money if they lodge a claim through a specific legal firm.