Amid a slug gish job mar ket, one indus try is grow ing by leaps and bounds: insur ance fraud.
Cases of sus pected insur ance fraud – called ques tion able claims, or QCs in indus try speak – rose 27% nation wide from 2010 through 2012, accord ing to new fig ures released by the National Insur ance Crime Bureau, or NICB.
Dur ing the three-year period, the num ber of QCs referred by insur ers to the bureau increased from 91,652 to 116,171. And unfor tu nately, the prob lem is get ting worse, grow ing 9% from 2010 to 2011 and 16% from 2011 to 2012.
In state-by-state stats, Cal i for nia fin ished well ahead of the pack with 58,415 ques tion able claims dur ing the three-year period, fol lowed by Florida (29,086), Texas (27,107), New York (23,402) and Mary land (10,315). States with the great est per capita increase in QCs dur ing the period include Ken tucky (89%), Ver mont (88%), Rhode Island (81%), Alaska (75%) and Mary land (70%).
The top five cities for ques tion able claims dur ing the period were New York (13,564), Los Ange les (7,779), Miami (5,503), Hous ton (5,464) and Bal ti more (3,690).
What types of insur ance most appeal to scam artists?
Auto insur ance led the field by far with 209,724 ques tion able claims, a por tion of which likely reflects the con cur rent growth in staged acci dents dur ing the period. Home insur ance fraud was the sec ond most com mon cat e gory with 40,747 QCs, fol lowed by fraud involv ing work ers’ com pen sa tion and employ ers’ lia bil ity poli cies (11,151), com mer cial auto insur ance (9,512) and commercial/general lia bil ity insur ance (7,519). The only ques tion able claim type to decline nation wide dur ing the period involved per sonal property/fire insur ance poli cies, which dropped from 457 claims in 2010 to 411 in 2012.
Faked or exag ger ated injury claims top the list of rea sons why insur ers refer claims to the NICB, with a whop ping 50,472 inci dents under review. Ques tion able theft of a vehi cle, boat or heavy equip ment placed sec ond with 35,508 QCs, fol lowed by prior loss/damage of mis cel la neous prop erty (29,646), fic ti tious loss of mis cel la neous items (29,017) and sus pi cious theft or loss of prop erty (24,867).
It’s hardly break ing news that we all pay for insur ance fraud in the form of higher insur ance rates. But you can fight back by report ing sus pi cious fraud anony mously to the NICB by call ing (800) TEL-NICB (1 800-835 6422), tex ting the key word “fraud” to TIP411 (847411) or via their web site at Nicb.org, where you also can down load the NICB fraud tips app onto your iPhone or iPad
