Insurance fraud has been described as a crime that other people commit, but that you end up paying for. When a consumer commits insurance fraud, it costs the insurance company money, which can cause the insurance company to increase the cost of insurance for all customers, not just for the one that committed fraud.
Do you understand what insurance fraud is? Would you like to learn more about it? The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud is an excellent resource to help consumers to know more about what insurance fraud is, what to do if your insurance company isn’t treating you right, and more. Part of this website points out specific individuals who have committed some form of insurance fraud.
There is also a quick checklist that you can use to find out if you have committed insurance fraud. If a person “fudges” or “tells a white lie” about what really happened, in an effort to gain money from an insurance company, or to get approved for a policy, this is insurance fraud. Many people don’t understand that, and assume that these little untruths are harmless. Did you tell your life insurance company that you don’t smoke, when in reality, you are a smoker? This is fraud. Did you stay home from work longer than you needed to after an injury, so that you could keep collecting workers compensation benefits? This is fraud too. Did you tell your car insurance company that you park your car in a garage every night, when, in reality, you park your car on the street? This, too, is insurance fraud.
Part of this website contains an Insurance Fraud Blog , which I find to be an interesting read. It has news articles about situations where fraud has been committed, or suggested. It is written by Dennis Jay, and he interposes his own opinions about newsworthy events that have something to do with insurance fraud. You can also find a “Hall of Shame” that has details about criminals who have committed a wide variety of insurance fraud. Some of these articles contain photographs of the criminal, a link to the original news article the story came from, and the writer’s opinions.
Image by Ken Mayer on Flickr