At first blush my specialization area of insurance fraud investigation may not seem like it is applicable to you unless you are an insurance adjuster or an insurance attorney. But, I’d like to point out some interesting things about insurance fraud, often referred to as a white collar crime.
Insurance fraud is estimated to be an 80 BILLION dollar a year industry. According to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud:
If insurance crooks formed a company called Fraud, Inc., it would rank 17th among the Fortune 500 in yearly income (for 2004).
Some people think that insurance fraud is really okay, I mean who can it hurt really? In fact, 25% of Americans surveyed think it is okay to commit insurance fraud.
The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud does a great job of laying out the many ways in which insurance fraud can hurt you.
People lose their savings. Trusting citizens are bilked out of thousands of dollars, often their entire life savings, by insurance investment schemes. The elderly are especially vulnerable.
Health is endangered. People’s health and lives are endangered by swindlers who sell nonexistent health policies or perform quack medical care to illegally inflate health insurance claims.
Premiums stay high. Auto and homeowner insurance prices stay high because insurance companies must pass the large costs of insurance fraud to policyholders.
Consumer goods cost more. Prices of goods at your department or grocery store keep rising when businesses pass higher costs of their health and commercial insurance onto customers.
Honest businesses lose money. Businesses lose millions in income annually because fraud increases their costs for employee health coverage and business insurance.
Innocent people are killed and maimed. People die from insurance schemes such as staged auto accidents and arson — including children and entire families. People and even animals also are murdered for life insurance money.
Employees lose jobs. People lose jobs, careers and health coverage when insurance companies go bankrupt after being looted by fraud thieves. You can view the whole article here.
Just think of the Wendy’s “finger in the chili incident” where Anna Ayala claimed she bit into a finger in her Wendy’s chili. The bad publicity from this caused the company to lose money, therefore employees lost wages.
So by doing my part to help fight insurance fraud I’m helping you to save money too J
You can read an interview I did with PINow.com about using hospital and pharmacy canvasses and medical record reviews, there’s a link on my website, www.StricklandPI.com.
I actually have seen cases from both sides of the fence as I have worked for plaintiffs as well as defendants. Facts are facts and finding them is what I am most concerned with as a private investigator.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: hospital canvass, insurance adjuster, insurance defense attorney, insurance fraud, knoxville private investigator, medical record reviews
A friend and fellow investigator does Ins. fraud work and I ws surprised at how often these people get a big check and take off. Often times he can’t even find them for surveillance. Many times a cell phone search has found a new address for them.