Consumers have been reminded again this week that honesty really is the best policy when it comes to making insurance claims.

As the financial markets tighten around the globe, insurance firms are clamping down on claims and making sure that when they do they pay out they have not been duped.

Furthermore, any 'white lies' that policyholders may have told insurance brokers in order to drive down the price of their cover are more likely to be picked up on in the current climate.

This is big news, as should an insurance firm discover that a car that was allegedly being parked in a secure garage, for example, was actually being left on the street all night, the entire policy could be rendered void.

Independent financial website, Fool.co.uk, which has two million members and 600,000 site visitors a month, has highlighted the changes taking place in the insurance industry at the moment.

David Kuo, head of personal finance at Fool.co.uk, explained that the verbal process of making an insurance claim has even changed and become more hi-tech.

He said: "There is now voice recognition so they can tell just by talking to you whether or not you are telling the truth.

"I think that it really is quite irresponsible of people if they try and lie on the claims form because they will get found out."

Mr Kuo added that a team of "well-trained" assessors are employed to deal with claims and it is their job to determine whether or not they are genuine.

"It's become a very cut-throat business and insurance companies are very careful about how they pay out these claims," he noted.

However, despite the fact that insurance firms are clamping down, recent research has shown that Brits are still determined to tell porky pies in order to lower the price of their policies.

A study by leading insurance group RSA in May this year found that 1.2 million Brits think that there is nothing wrong with lying on an insurance claim.

Even more worrying is the fact that 56 per cent of people thought that it was "unlikely" they would ever get caught committing insurance fraud.

However, if those telling white lies do get caught the consequences they face will cause them more financial upset than paying out extra for a more expensive insurance policy.

Luckily, 74 per cent of those surveyed realised that committing insurance fraud could result in their cover being voided and 59 per cent knew that they may have to pay back any previous claim payments received under the same policy.

RSA's counter fraud manager, John Beadle, said: "The reality is that insurance fraud adds a significant amount to overall claim costs and it's the honest policyholders who are the true victims.

"Fraud adds an additional five per cent onto their insurance bills."

He added that consumers need to wise-up to the fact that in the "near future" insurance firms will be able to keep better tabs on fraud, across a spectrum of products.

This means that if a person is detected making a fraudulent claim on one policy other financial firms will be made aware of this, potentially putting a black mark next to their name.