A major British mortgage lender will be using lie detector tests on its customers who file insurance claims, according to media reports.
HBOS PLC Group, which the British press calls England’s “biggest” mortgage lender, reportedly plans to begin the tests next month on customers who call in with claims.
The detection system is categorized as “voice stress analysis,” and is already being used in England by some companies in evaluating motor insurance claims, according to The Guardian, a British paper.
The Evening Standard, another British paper, quoted an HBOS spokesperson who explained that the lie detector will be just one part of an overall claim evaluation.
“It won’t be used in isolation. Policyholders with honest claims have nothing to fear from it,” the spokesperson said.
Civil rights groups are already decrying the practice as unreliable.
In the Mirror, a spokesman for the group Liberty said, “We have serious reservations about this as the science is dodgy. A lie detector test can’t actually show whether someone is lying. It will just show whether someone is hesitant or under stress. But I would suggest many people making claims will be under some stress.”
An insurance industry group, the Association of British Insurers, found that half those in a survey of 2,000 would consider filing a fraudulent claim, the Guardian said. The research also found that 40 percent of claimants would not file a fraudulent claim if they believed they would get caught.
According to the Guardian, HBOS insures two million customers.
