Car & Auto Insurance Fraud
The Insurance Research Council estimated that in 1996, 21 to 36 percent of car insurance claims contained elements of suspected car insurance fraud. There is a wide variety of schemes used to defraud auto insurance providers. These ploys can differ greatly in complexity and severity. Richard A. Derrig, vice president of research for the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts, lists several ways that car insurance fraud can occur. Examples of soft car insurance fraud can include filing more than one claim for a single injury, filing insurance claims for injuries not related to an car accident, misreporting wage losses due to injuries, or reporting higher costs for car repairs than those that were actually paid. Hard car insurance fraud can include activities such as staging car collisions, filing claims when the claimant was not actually involved in the accident, submitting insurance claims for medical treatments that were not received, or inventing injuries.