5 Most Common Types of Insurance Frauds You Should Know Of

Surprisingly, insurance fraud is viewed as a victim-less offense. When insurance companies are cheated, it is the people who pay premium on a timely basis that suffer the most. This is because their insurance cost goes up. It’s saddening to know that the losses suffered by insurance companies because of perpetrators are in turn borne by honest people.

According to statistics, around $80 billion losses are incurred annually on account of insurance frauds.

However, not many people know that we, as individuals, can play an essential role in preventing insurance frauds. For this, we need to be aware of the most common types. Stated below are the 5 most common types of insurance frauds:

1.     Stolen Cars

Offenders make use of stolen cars to commit an insurance fraud in two ways. Firstly, if a legitimate owner sells the car to a body shop owner for spare parts, it could be considered stolen. Since the body shop is also a faction of the scheme, the legal authorities wouldn’t  be able to find out that an insurance fraud has been committed. Secondly, criminals hide their car and make claims that it has been stolen. Moreover, the insurance company wouldn’t be able to draw out money from the car owner even after the car is located.

2.     Car Accidents

Many of the accidents that happen around us are actually insurance frauds taking place. Insurance fraud accidents are staged where the driver and the victim are co-conspirators. Sometimes, the fraud is planned on such a massive level that it involves fake witnesses and insurance investigators as well. Moreover, in such fraud claims, the value of the car that got hit and the value of the car that hits the victim’s car are greatly hiked. Likely so, the cost of the damages is also inflated.

3.     Health Insurance Billing Fraud

It is quite appalling to know that healthcare professionals are often involved in such conspiracies. Some basic examples of common frauds they commit include billing the insurance company for treatments that was never provided, or hiking the value of the work that was done. For instance, if a patient comes in for a regular checkup, the doctor would bill the insurance company for an in-patient surgery. Here, the patient may be the real victim of fraud but would have no knowledge of it.

4.     Unneeded Medical Procedures

If you ever come across a situation where your doctor is prescribing you tests unnecessarily, or ones you feel don’t pertain to your condition, you might be a victim of insurance fraud. For example, if you are suffering from a leg sore and your doctor asks you to get some blood and stool tests done, you are likely to get confused as to the reason behind this test.

5.     Faked Death

This is one fraud that has stemmed from movies, books and TV shows. In such kind of insurance frauds, the criminal will file an insurance policy of his own life, making the spouse as the only beneficiary. After months, the fraudster will fake his/her own death and all the money and benefits will go to the spouse. Post funeral, the spouse may relocate where they reunite and enjoy the claimed money.

Have you been a victim of a ruthless insurance fraud? If yes, then you surely need the assistance of an insurance fraud investigator such as National SIU. This private investigations firm has a special investigations unit so that you can be provided with evidences that reveal the real side of the case. Browse their website http://www.nsiu.com/home for more information.