Auto insurance quotes and the rise in fraud

It's a sad fact of life that some people prefer to make a living by dishonest means or decide to cover a shortfall by a one-off fraud. To some extent, this is not too serious a problem when the economy is booming. But when a recession hits and family budgets come under pressure, this increases the temptation to bend the rules, whether a little or a lot. As with all aspects of the industry, there's a non-profit organization designed to monitor the situation. This is the National Insurance Crime Bureau. It collects all the claims data from every insurer and analyzes it for trends. It's reporting a 10% increase in the number of "questionable" claims in 2010. Why should we care? Well, if the insurers simply pay out on every claim, this means our money is just being poured into the pockets of criminals. So the insurers hire investigators to expose the fraudsters. Hopefully, these brave detectives save more than they cost to employ.

So what are all these scams? Well, they all start with the comprehensively insured vehicle. If there's a budget crisis, the vehicle just has to be stolen. This is a police report and no sign of the vehicle in the claimant's possession immediately following the claim. But insurance scams are being professionalized. There's a whole network of fake clinics and ambulance-chasing attorneys who recruit upstanding citizens prepared to stage collisions. Such "accidents" are most carefully planned so there are always a number of independent witnesses. The "injured" are then whisked off to the front clinics where details of the injuries are logged. Over the next months, treatment will be documented and the insurers billed. The participants are paid their percentage and everyone celebrates. There are civil fraud suits filled every month for $10 million and more. Sadly, the white collar crime units in local police forces rarely have the resources to mount prosecutions as a deterrent. But the total amount of such fraud going through apparently proper channels has been growing strongly as organized crime sees the profits. The NICB is reporting about one-third of questionable claims involves fake medical care.

The current reality forces rate rises that outstrip inflation. Fraud rises fast during a recession. Indeed, many of those involved do not see this as a real crime. They are just taking a few buck off big corporations that can afford it. Well, actually they are taking it from all us hard-working policyholders who pay the rising premiums. If we could stamp out fraud, the rates would fall quite sharply both because claims would drop and because we would no longer need all these special investigators. While we wait for this crime-free tomorrow, shop around. Some insurance companies have bigger and better fraud detection systems and keep their rates lower. So get the maximum number of auto insurance quotes and check out the reputation of each insurance company on its claims handling. Those with the lowest rates may ask the most questions before paying out on the bigger claims. This may suit you. So always look behind auto insurance quotes and learn more about each insurance company before deciding which deal to accept.