Signs You May Be A Victim of Insurance Fraud

Life Insurance Fraud

Nov 13, 2016

Fraud occurs when you are criminally deceived so that someone else can financially benefit. Insurance fraud occurs when brokers or agents – or those posing as brokers or agents – prey on unsuspecting victims, selling them fraudulent insurance, unnecessary services or asking them to be involved in fake accidents. Here are a few signs to look for if you suspect you’re a victim of insurance fraud.

Fake Policies

Those posing as agents or brokers can sell you policies that don’t exist, so your payments never go to a larger business underwriting the policy.  One sign of this type of scam is if the broker doesn’t give you information about the company underwriting the policy.

 Premium Fraud

Like a fake policy, with premium fraud the broker or agent keeps your payments instead of sending it to the insurance company. The difference here is that you purchased a real policy, so when your payments are not received, the insurance company cancels your policy. A sign of this is receiving notification that your policy will or has been cancelled even though you’ve been making payments.

 Unlicensed Agents

Anyone selling insurance must be licensed and have proper credentials to do so. If an agent is hard to contact, doesn’t have an office or refused to share his or her credentials with you, it might be a sign that they are unlicensed.

Unnecessary Services

Agents or brokers who encourage you to buy services or upgrades that you don’t need could be committing fraud.  A sign of this is if a broker is overly pushy and won’t let you say no to something that doesn’t seem needed.

 Insurance Scams

Groups of people can run scams, like staging a fake car accident, that are designed to get money from insurance companies. If anyone asks you to be a part of a fake accident or requests that you give false information about an accident, they are participating in an insurance scam.

 Con artists who run insurance fraud schemes specifically target their victims, gaining their trust to make the scam work – so you may not even see the warning signs. Insurance fraud is dangerous as it can leave you out to dry when real disaster strikes. If you think you’ve experienced insurance fraud and live in Northwest Arkansas, contact a Conway insurance fraud attorney and educate yourself about the signs of fraud.