Insurance companies lose an estimated $30 billion per year in insurance fraud costs that have to get passed on to bill-paying consumers. You can help stop insurance fraud by contacting your state department of insurance and giving as many details as you possibly can about the fraud that you witnessed. Consumers should learn to be vigilant in identifying insurance fraud by becoming familiar with the 10 most common forms of fraud.
Stolen Car
There are two ways that criminals perpetrate the stolen car insurance fraud scam. The first type of stolen car fraud is when a car owner sells his car to a body shop to be cut up for parts and then reports the car as stolen. The body shop is in on the fraud, so the authorities are never told about the sale for parts. The second most common way that criminals commit stolen car fraud is to sell the car to an overseas buyer, make the transaction without any paperwork, ship the car overseas and then report it stolen.
Car Accident
The next time you see a car accident, you could be watching insurance fraud in action. In most cases, the driver and accident victim are the only ones in on the scheme. In other cases, the driver, victim, insurance investigators and even some of the bystanders that give statements are in on the fraud. The value of the vehicles is greatly inflated and the insurance payoff is for two totaled vehicles.
Car Damage
Any form of insurance fraud is illegal and damaging to the insurance company. Some people will report a small car accident, get an estimate for damages, collect the insurance check and then not get the car fixed. This is single most common form of auto insurance fraud going on, and it happens constantly. The people doing it see no harm in it, but the money the insurance company pays out comes from premiums paid by other customers, which will go up the more often this fraud is committed.
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