Did you know that insurance fraud is a common thing and that it is a billion-dollar industry? Several surveys from 2011 to 2015 pointed out that property fraud reached around $40 billion per year. These numbers even increased in the last couple of years. Millions of people attempt to cheat and receive cash settlements from those insurance companies. And guess what? Many of them are successful.
This leads to hiring a private investigator that analyzes insurance claims and digs into them to combat the rise of insurance frauds. If you are interested in what insurance investigation means and what a private investigator does, we invite you to keep reading.
THE INVESTIGATIVE APPROACH
First things first, the private investigator will try to reconstruct what happened. In order to do so, they usually follow a specific, systematic approach along these:
- Incident overview
- Claimant statement
- Documentary evidence
- Physical evidence
- Witness statements
- Case report
AN INSURANCE INVESTIGATOR WILL TAKE A DEEP LOOK AT YOUR PAST CLAIMS
If you have filed a claim with your insurance company, bear in mind that the insurance investigator will diligently go through your past claims to look for so-called red flags. They will, for sure, take a look at how many times did you file claims, that is, how often and the very nature of your claims.
Insurance investigators are also in charge of looking for patterns to see if some group of people have more probability than others to commit insurance fraud. They are not trying to imply that you are a fraudster, they are just ensuring that fraud is not present.
THEY USE SOCIAL MEDIA
If you wonder what an insurance investigator has to do with social media, it is quite obvious. Social media is today an effective tool for discovering insurance claim fraud. Wondering how so? Well, social media is a global online tool used by people every single day. Hence, social media is an ideal tool that helps insurance investigators catching potential criminal activity.
You might be in a delusion that fraudsters would be much more careful, but they are not. From posting photos or videos of themselves playing sport after reporting an injury to brag about what they did on social media, the vast majority of people make these mistakes and incriminate themselves.
THEY WILL DIG DEEP INTO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Let’s make one thing crystal clear. Insurance companies are unprecedentedly careful when it comes to awarding cash settlements. Until cash settlement happens, an insurance investigation can dig deep into your suspicious personal background to see if fraud has been committed.
For example, if they uncover some suspicious criminal history, they will likely dig even further to find something that can incriminate the fraud.
THEY WORK HAND IN HAND WITH PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS
In some cases, when individual history demands deeper investigation, insurance investigators can employ the extra help, that is, a private investigator, in order to help them with the case. Insurance companies often call private investigators to help them in discovering fraudulent claims.
THEY CHECK OFF A LIST OF SUSPICIOUS LOSS INDICATORS
NICB (The National Insurance Crime Bureau) created a list of suspicious loss signals. When insurance investigators need to check claims, they will take a look at this list to make sure everything is regular.
Some of these loss indicators include:
- An increase in insurance just before submitted claim
- Handwritten receipts about when the repair has been done and how much did it cost
- Big financial debt on behalf of the claimant
Although many of these indicators do not always prove fraud, they help investigators to look further and deeper into the claim.
FINAL WORDS
As we can see from statistics, fraud is becoming frequent across all insurance industries. From life to home insurance, investigators are trying to discover any irregularities and take a closer look at those claims.
In the end, to put it simply, insurance investigators are important members, part of an insurance company. Basically, these people work hard to prevent any fraudulent claims from being paid out.
If you face an injury and are contacted by an insurance investigator, bear in mind that it is important to call your attorney before making any moves or statements.
Last but not least. If you are in need of insurance investigators, do not hesitate to ask for professional help.
