All you need to know about Auto insurance fraud

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In the current economic situation, it is becoming more common to sight cases of auto insurance fraud. Every day there are new reports of cases of fraud and the perpetrators are devising new methods to prevent being caught and to collect on their insurance.

The most common method would be staged rear ending of cars. A car which is speeding on the highway will suddenly apply its brakes and cause the car from behind to slam into it. And for all practical reasons it looks like you were the person at fault because you were the one who could see the car ahead of you. This is one of the reasons why you are always advised by the police to maintain at least a two car distance with the vehicle ahead of you.

Even when you have adapted your cruise control system, try not to lose your concentration. Make sure that your eyes are always on the road. Always be ready to disengage the cruise control and step on the brakes when you see the car stopping ahead of you. It is said that more than 90% of the people involved in an accident do not utilize the full capacity of their brakes and hence end up meeting with a more severe accident. Slam the brakes with full force and do not release your hold on it to ensure full action.

There have also been cases of phony injury claims. Here the instigator might lie about trauma sustained during an accident. This allows them to claim a lot of money in the name of medical bills. Usually in such cases, the doctor will be in on the fraud.

Another type of fraud is called a jump-in. this involved inventing the existence of people in the vehicle when they were clearly not there at all in the first place. This way they can claim a lot more money in the name of medical treatment. Both these techniques are not premeditated and would involve people who are just taking advantage of a situation. Hence it will be a lot more difficult to catch them. As they would have going ahead with lying only after analyzing that you or the law enforcement agencies have not been efficient enough in making note of the details of the accident.

This is usually called soft fraud. This involves people who bolster or pad up their case in order to claim more. They could also add previous damage to the present case; conspire with a body shop or doctor to add damage or injuries to the bill.

There have been instances where an accident is staged and the fraudsters are extremely well equipped and prepared. Doctors, lawyers and body shop people have conspired together to create an almost concrete case which would be undefeatable in court.

It is important for the common man to take notice of such acts and report it immediately. Fraud is the number one reason why auto insurance rates have been going up in this country. Auto insurance fraud is the number one white collar crime in the United States of America. There are a lot of agencies fighting such crime, but it needs the concerted effort of the public and the nation in general to put a stop to this menace.