A Video Explaining How to Discover and Defeat Insurance Fraud

Identifying Insurance FraudShow more

Next to tax fraud, insurance fraud is the most practiced crime in the world. It is perpetrated by members of every race, religion, sexual orientation, and nationality. Insurance fraud is perpetrated by members of every profession. The temptation to commit insurance fraud is great because prosecutions are rare, convictions are rarer and the convicted serve little or no time in prison. The possibility of a tax-free profit, coupled with the commonly held belief that it is not a crime or morally wrong to steal from an insurer is often too difficult for normally honest people to resist.

In September 2019 the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, after reporting on the conviction of an insurance fraud perpetrator who was sentenced to probation only, asked: “What’s wrong with courts that won’t send frauds to jail for a felony?” The answer is a failure to educate the judiciary that insurance fraud is a serious crime against the public – not just what they consider a rich and less than honorable industry.

The education effort must explain to the public and the judiciary that each year, the effect of insurance fraud runs to billions of dollars. It is estimated that insurance fraud takes between 3% and 30% of the premiums collected by insurers doing business in the United States. It drains from $80 billion to $300 billion from the assets of insurers and similar amounts from government supported “insurance” programs like the National Flood Insurance Program, crop insurance programs, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security Disability, and Obamacare.

Insurance fraud is not limited to the US. It happens in every country where insurance exists. For example, in the United Kingdom, insurance fraud is estimated to take £1.4 billion a year. [See www.insurancefraudbureau.org/.]  In Canada, insurance fraud accounted for between 10% and 15% of premiums in 2009—or an estimated $C1.3 billion, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC).

© 2021 – Barry Zalma

Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, now limits his practice to service as an insurance consultant specializing in insurance coverage, insurance claims handling, insurance bad faith and insurance fraud almost equally for insurers and policyholders. He also serves as an arbitrator or mediator for insurance related disputes. He practiced law in California for more than 44 years as an insurance coverage and claims handling lawyer and more than 52 years in the insurance business. He is available at http://www.zalma.com and zalma@zalma.com.

Mr. Zalma is the first recipient of the first annual Claims Magazine/ACE Legend Award.

Over the last 53 years Barry Zalma has dedicated his life to insurance, insurance claims and the need to defeat insurance fraud. He has created the following library of books and other materials to make it possible for insurers and their claims staff to become insurance claims professionals.

Go to the podcast Zalma On Insurance at https://anchor.fm/barry-zalma;  Follow Mr. Zalma on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bzalma; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/c/c-262921; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysiZklEtxZsSF9DfC0Expg; Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims-library/ Read posts from Barry Zalma at https://parler.com/profile/Zalma/posts; and the last two issues of ZIFL at https://zalma.com/zalmas-insurance-fraud-letter-2/  podcast now available at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zalma-on-insurance/id1509583809?uo=4