What are the Charges?

Falsely reporting information to your insurance provider to obtain payments that you are not entitled to is called insurance fraud. Fraud can be for something as extreme as burning down your business to collect insurance money, to exaggerating the extent of an injury to receive a larger insurance settlement. Depending on the extent of the fraud, it is possible to be charged at either the state or federal level.

5 Most Common Types Of Fraud In The Insurance Industry

• False Claims – One of the most common types of insurance fraud is making a claim for an accident that never happened or was staged or work that was never performed.
• Inflated Claims – Inflated claims can happen at any time, but they tend to be the most plentiful in the wake of natural disasters. In some cases, homeowners may knowingly sign inflated claims for work that was never done and in others cases, they don’t actually know that the work the insurance company is being billed for was never performed.
• Disaster Fraud – The wake of any natural disaster creates a perfect environment for a wide range of fraudulent activities. Because of the high volume of claims being made, insurance companies simply do not have the personnel available to go out and investigate every claim. It is not unusual for a single home to be left completely untouched right in the midst of a ring of homes that are burned, flooded or otherwise destroyed or a car or other valuable to survive in pristine condition.
• Faked Death – Faking your own death is such a common type of fraud that it is even a common plot point in a wide range of books, movies, and television shows. The premise is fairly simple. A policyholder will take out a large life insurance policy on themselves and then fake their own death to receive the payout through another party.
• Insurance Company Fraud – Not all insurance fraud is committed by policyholders or by defrauding policyholders. A great deal of insurance fraud is also committed by insurance agents or agencies. Some of the more common types of insurance agency fraud include premium diversion and fee churning.

These cases can be extremely complex. If you are charged, the attorneys at Hammerschmidt Law Corporation have over 100 years of combined experience in the criminal defense field. Contact (559) 233-5333 or go to our website if you are being charged with such an offense.