National Insurance Crime Bureau puts rise at 14%
The US National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) said questionable insurance claims rose 14% last year, with a jump in suspected staged motor accidents and construction fraud, Dow Jones reports.
NICB said it received a total of 85,209 questionable claims in 2009, compared with 74,902 in 2008. Questionable claims are ones that insurance companies refer to the bureau for closer review and investigation based on fraud suspicion.
Questionable property claims related to hail damage more than tripled in 2009 to 772 from the year before, the biggest percentage jump of any category, NICB said.
Staged accidents
Questionable claims related to staged accidents rose 43% and claims related to the suspicious disappearance or loss of jewellery rose 29%.
The bureau said it has seen "significant increases" in claims related to staged auto accidents where "organised criminals are trying to collect for injuries after deliberately causing an auto accident," said NICB president and chief executive Joe Wehrle. The jump could be attributed to increased awareness of scams by insurance companies, he said.
Wehrle also said the bureau has seen more questionable claims in which roofing companies "take advantage of storms to fake or deliberately cause damage to roofs in an effort to get insurers to pay for a replacement roof that wasn't damaged in the first place."
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