Insurance fraud is one of the largest crimes in the U.S. today and insurance fraud investigations take up a great deal of law enforcements, and insurance adjusters time. It costs an insurance company billions every year. It is estimated that about 10% of all insurance claims are frauds. The money that is stolen in this type of fraud costs everyone money.
How Does Insurance Fraud Take Place?
There are many ways insurance fraud happens and we will go over a few methods here.
Home Insurance Fraud
For example fraud in home insurance may take place in the following way. Let´s say a person files a robbery report. He states that the thieves cam in and took the stereo and the TV, but he might also hide the computer and other equipment and report them as stolen.
Auto Insurance Fraud
There are well organized automobile insurance scams out there. A criminal will follow someone in a car and then speed up in front of them and slam on the brakes so that the person has a rear end collision. The driver is usually very nice, he may approach you and then ask you if you need help, he will call a towing service, and a body repair shop he has stored on his cell. He will also call a lawyer for you. What you don’t know is that this driver has been hired by the car shop to provoke the accident. The doctor, attorney and tow shop are probably in the scam too. Don’t make deals with repair shops from anyone you have had a collision with, and read all the fine print before signing any papers.
Fake Insurance
You may be short on money and be looking for a great insurance deal. This goes for all types of insurance, you look in the newspaper and find that perfect deal. You buy it,. Sign the papers etc, then two months later you need to make a claim and come to find out that your insurance policy is fake.
There are many other such cases that we at Tom Nickels professional investigator services have dealt with. It is estimated that insurance fraud costs close to 80 billion dollars a year, and that raises everyones insurance by as much as $1000 a year. Insurance fraud cost the company, the consumer, and law enforcement time and money. If law enforcement did not have to spend so much time on insurance fraud investigations, they could spend more of their time prosecuting other types of criminals.
