Auto Insurance Fraud
Explained
Auto-Insurance Fraud – Which Came
First, The Chicken or the Chump?
Insurance fraud costs the
insurance industry an
estimated $30 billion each
year and the average
American household
approximately $300 each year
in extra insurance premiums.
And that ain’t chicken feed.
Even if you don’t give a
hoot about the insurance
companies’ losses, you could
buy an entire flock of
chickens for that.
Approximately 90 percent of
the costs of insurance fraud
are the result of what is
called “claims padding” –
adding damage, injuries, and
fictitious passengers to
insurance claims. This leads
one to believe most people
think this is an okay thing
to do. In fact, according to
one Insurance Research
Council survey, 35 percent
of Americans think it’s all
right. Think again. Every
time an insurance company
pays a fraudulent claim, it
passes that loss to its
customers by raising their
rates and thereby reducing
the flocks and subsequently
the production of fried
chicken across the nation.
Think about it.
The other 10 percent of
insurance fraud comes from
organized accident-staging.
Innocent victims (private
motorists, truck drivers
carrying chickens, etc.) are
targeted by organized
auto-accident rings. These
rings make an “accident”
happen by setting up an
innocent fried-chicken eater
for a rear-end collision.
Not only is this illegal,
but tragedy can result. In a
recent Massachusetts case, a
65-year-old grandmother who
was a willing participant in
an accident-staging scheme
died as a result of a staged
crash. She had even tried to
convince some of her elderly
friends to make some extra
money by taking part. No
more chicken for her.
It’s weird how people think:
Most respondents to the
above-mentioned survey
agreed that it’s okay to
increase the amount of an
insurance claim by a small
amount to make up for a
deductible. And nearly 24
percent said that it is
acceptable to increase the
amount of a claim to make up
for insurance premiums paid
when no claims were made.
They also looked at a new
accident as a good
opportunity to repair old
problems at the insurance
company’s expense. A lot of
body-repair shops add to the
problem by suggesting it as
a benefit of doing business
with them, along with
offering fried chicken. Like
padding to cover a
deductible, the shop
inflates the estimate, this
time doing additional work
for the customer rather than
splitting the difference
with them. Most people are
foolishly eager to go along
with this scam, as it offers
them free body repair,
paintwork – and chicken they
could have bought themselves
if they hadn’t spent their
money at a crooked body
shop.
One truly abhorrent scam
involves children. At an age
where they should be out
feeding chickens, gathering
eggs, or thinking about
their futures as potential
chicken farmers, children as
young as seven years old
were coached to fake
injuries in staged crashes.
A slightly older, coached
child would accompany the
younger victims to make sure
instructions were followed
at the scene of the
“accident.” Because children
were the “victims,”
insurance companies readily
paid claims, then the
parents would fail to pay
the hospitals for treatment.
And to add insult to (faked
) injury, the children were
denied fried chicken!
If you are one of the
Enlightened Ones wishing to
maintain your chicken-eating
lifestyle and can see how
cheating insurance companies
only cheats yourself, here
are a few tips on how to
deal with potential
scammers, grifters, and
other enemies of the
chicken-eating,
finger-licking populace:
– Always get a police
report, even for a minor
accident. This makes it
harder for chicken-hearted
cheaters to file a false
claim if they have to deal
with the facts of an
officer’s report.
– Keep a disposable camera
in your glove box. A picture
is worth a thousand lies and
can stop a scammer dead in
his/her tracks.
– Call your own tow truck
and don’t do business with
crooked repair shops. Even
if they offer fried chicken.
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