Online Dating Frauds Number 1 - The Nigerian
Insurance fraud accounts for about 40 billion dollars in losses each year- sometimes ranging as high as 80 billion, and as economic downturns and unemployment worsens, so too does the occurrence of what is commonly referred to as 'opportunistic fraud'. Basically, this is when the policy holder has a claim that is legitimate, but pads their claim a bit to get a higher payment- and it is on the rise. You may be thinking that this only impacts the insurance companies, however year after year as this continues to escalate, policy holders find that it gets more and more expensive to insure. Basically, insurance fraud cost families roughly anywhere between four hundred and seven hundred dollars per year in increased premiums the FBI website on insurance fraud shows.
There are two types of insurance fraud, the Insurance Information Institute says, and these are usually classified as hard and soft fraud. A hard fraud is pretty much what it sounds like- the entire thing is made up, or fabricated. This can either be a fake claim or even a staged accident. The term soft fraud refers to the cases of opportunistic fraud where claims are padded. This can also encompass employers who misrepresent the work employees do or list less employees than they actually have- so that they are paying out lower worker's compensation premiums.
Some forms of insurance see greater opportunity for fraud to strike. In 2003, The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Administration and the U.S. Government Accountability Office uncovered that approximately 85 billion dollars in insurance fraud alone came from that sector. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners' 2008 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse has also revealed that check tampering, skimming, corruption and billing fraud were the most common fraud schemes, with check tampering much more common in the health care insurance industry alone. Insurance industry check tampering usually happens when legitimate checks are made out to those who do actually have a valid claim are Action fraud number , or just completely creating a check to people who really don't even exist.
The insurance industry itself, being such a broad range entity collects approximately 1 trillion dollars in premiums each year, making it a high stakes target for opportunists seeking to run a scam. Many who engage in the soft fraud imagine that it is a victimless crime, but the statistics in premium increases show them to be wrong. The economic impact of this crime is not yet fully known, but it is clear that as the economy wobbles back and forth more and more fraudsters are coming into the fray with newer scams all the time. So while some may imagine that these crimes really aren't hurting anyone- in all actuality they are furthering a cycle of economic woe- the short term gain in most frauds tends to cycle back around into longer term losses as premium increases cause more families to feel the pinch.
