Insurance companies treat individual life insurance claims differently than they do group insurance claims. Group life insurance is typically for a very low amount compared to individual policies, so the verification process isn’t very extensive. Many of these companies don’t even check the death certificates for group claims; they just verify that the SS# has been deactivated, then pay the claim.
Imagine you are the actuary for this insurance company.
All of a sudden you see the death rates skyrocket for certain companies which you have insured.
You are going to do some investigating to find out why, whether it is an anomaly, whether it is a change in working conditions in that industry or only in that specific company...or whatever. You are not going to ignore it.
So I will bet money the insurance company knows or at least working hard to find out.