Fraudulent insurance claims cost the Canadian insurance industry hundreds of million dollars a year. Fraudsters with the sole intent to defraud and gut money out of insurance companies for faked or nonexistent injuries are making a killing these days. Money is the sole intent and the fraudulent activities affect honest policy holders who are unfortunately affected by the misdeeds of these criminals. It is the job of insurance investigators to make sure they are found out and their phony insurance claims junked. Some insurance companies have their own investigations team in-house but can always use the assistance of a few more ‘in field’ surveillance investigators. That is why most companies hire third party insurance investigators.
The types of insurance fraud can be categorized into Life Insurance, Health Care Insurance, Automobile Insurance, and Property Insurance. Health care, Property Insurance and Automobile Insurance fraud cases are quite common. Life Insurance fraud is an extreme form of fraud since it takes considerable skill, planning and execution to be able to pull it off. Can you imagine living away from your family and friends and pretending that you’re dead? Living life under a fake identity and constantly living under the fear of being arrested? With millions of insurance claims being filed each year it is hard for insurance investigators to investigate all claims one by one. They even use computers that run statistical analysis software which detect patterns of fraud, and they work on the cases that have the highest probability being tagged as fraud.
Insurance fraud is a serious crime that occurs across all Canadian provinces and elsewhere in the world. The perpetrators are creative in their plots and continue to find new ways to defraud Canadian Insurance companies. The Insurance Bureau of Canada was established in 1964 to represent private home, car and business insurers. The role of the bureau is to detect opportunities and foresee trends that may arise in the future. It also lobbies with the federal and provincial government for policies, laws and other actions that will benefit the industry as a whole. It recently formed an Anti-fraud Task Force, established with the help of the Ontario Government in 2011.
