Each year in the United States, $80 billion (or more) is stolen via insurance fraud. That cost is passed onto consumers when the cost of premiums rise.
Below are some of the ways these scammers operate and pick the pockets of Americans just like you.
Botched arson
When an Indianapolis man torched his home to collect $300,000 worth of insurance money, his house exploded. The fireball destroyed a large portion of his neighborhood and killed his next- door neighbor. The inept arsonist is now serving a life sentence without parole.
Crash gang collisions
Organized gangs stage accidents all the time to collect on false claims of injuries. Complicit doctors and chiropractors forge false medical records. Getting caught perpetrating insurance fraud can land these scammers behind bars in federal prisons.
Fraudulent agents
A Kansas insurance agent ripped off tens of thousands of dollars from her clients' premium payments and didn't purchase them any coverage. Of course, when the inevitable accidents occurred, she got caught, convicted and sent to prison. That was small comfort to her uninsured clients, however.
Conned by contractors
These trolls roam neighborhoods after disasters, offering low-cost fixes for damaged homes. When homeowners jump on the "deal" and give them partial payments, the cons flee with the money, only to turn up elsewhere and repeat the con. Motto — if it sounds too good to be true, it is.
Slip-and-fall fakers
Homeowners can lose big bucks and get dropped from their insurance policies when staged slip-and-falls occur on their properties.
Have you fallen victim to one of the above — or other — types of insurance fraud? If so, learn all that you can about your legal options in order to fight back against fraudsters.
Source: insurancefraud.org, "Fraud: Why worry?," accessed Feb. 02, 2018
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