Auto Insurance
Home Insurance
Business
Life InsuranceCategory Archives: Group Life | Health
Insurance fraud makes victims out of insurance companies and their customers. In common terms, insurance fraud is lying to or deceiving an insurer in order to make money or to become insured. Some common fraud schemes include:
- “padding” (inflating the true amount of) a claim
- lying or hiding (concealing) important information when applying for insurance
- lying or hiding (concealing) important information when reporting a loss
- submitting false claims
- “staging” accidents
- Failing to report recovered property
- faking theft claims
- committing (home or vehicular) arson for profit
As a consumer, fraud should concern you since the cost is passed directly on to you in the form of higher insurance rates. You can play an important role in reducing fraud.
Fighting Auto Insurance Fraud
Persons attempting to commit insurance fraud often do so by deceiving innocent drivers during actual accidents or by involving innocent drivers in “staged” accidents. Do the following in order to minimize this risk:
- Drive defensively, keeping space between you and surrounding cars.
- When traffic slows, begin braking before the car in front of you does.
- Be careful when turning into a lane that allows two or more autos to turn left at the same time. Victims of insurance fraud are often people who float across the line when turning and then are intentionally sideswiped by a person who is “staging” an accident.
- If you are in an accident, write down license numbers of all cars involved in the accident, get the names and contact information of all persons involved and their insurers. Count the number of passengers in the other cars and get their names, addresses and any other pertinent information.
- Call the police and get a police report even if the damage is minimal. DO NOT let another driver talk you out of calling the police.
- Carry a disposable camera in your glove compartment or make use of a cell phones camera feature and take pictures of the damage to the vehicles and of all drivers and passengers in the cars.
Fighting Homeowners Insurance Fraud
It is far more difficult to involve an innocent party in homeowner fraud. However, a homeowner can help himself and help deter fraudulent claims by properly maintaining their home, and by removing or repairing items that could create tripping hazards to outside parties. Also, if someone is injured in your home, be certain that you get full information and be sure that an injured person gets any needed treatment. Carefully document any incident, including all impressions about likely injury. It may also be prudent to show healthy skepticism over any information on medical bills or claims.
Report suspicious actions such as a friend who asks you to store valuable property and you then find that they reported to his insurer that the property was stolen.
Think of insurance fraud as money out of your pocket-because it is. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, fraud adds 25% to property and casualty insurance rates.
If you are involved in an accident and you are suspicious that fraud may be involved, report it to the authorities and your insurer. Another helpful source for fraud information is the National Insurance Crime Bureau at 1-800-TEL-NICB (at the time of this writing, their Website was located at www.nicb.org).
Check out our new TV commercial on Vimeo. The commercial will be showing on channel 2 around the Today Show, Jeopardy, and the local news.
[clear]After making the effort to identify what you need to insure, what company you want to handle your protection, and working to understand the various policies that cover you and your possessions, isn’t the importance of telling your agent or insurance company about a loss obvious? Surprisingly, no, it isn’t.
The Notification Obligation
Fulfilling the coverage promise of an insurance policy is all about communication. An insurer makes a promise to protect you against certain types of loss, but it can’t follow-through unless it knows about a loss. Prompt notification is so important that it is a formal policy requirement. Your failing to meet this obligation could result in a claim being denied.
A policy typically requires you to do the following:
Contact the agent or insurer as quickly as practical – the practical requirement replaced the previous use of “possible,” since some companies unreasonably denied coverage because notification was not instantaneous. The difference between words may seem minor, but it gives you some flexibility for dealing with circumstances that could affect how quickly you contact your agent or insurer about a loss.
Identify Yourself – Perhaps one day your insurer will be able to recognize your voice over the phone and immediately pull up your file. Until then, be prepared to at least tell your insurer your full name (or, if different, the name the insurance policy is under) and the policy number.
Give adequate details – What, When Where, Why and How. It is important that the insurer has enough information to take proper action. This information allows an insurer to open a claim file, assign the loss to a claims person and begin investigation of your loss.
Give the insurer copies of any communications regarding a loss or possible loss (such as a threat of a lawsuit) – You should not guess about whether a legal notice or request to be paid for damages is important, even when an actual lawsuit has yet to be filed. Send a copy of the information to your insurer and let them decide.
Prompt Notification helps Everyone
Complete and quick communication about losses gives you the best chance to get needed coverage and gives your insurer an opportunity to handle a possible claim efficiently. It also allows the insurer to control issues that could let lawsuits get out of control, such as the ability to offer payment for medical expenses or to contact and question witnesses.
Don’t hesitate! Contact your agent or insurer and get your loss handled.