There are many types of insurance fraud that you, the individual, or your insurance company can be a victim too. These claims are made to take money from you by involving you in the types of accidents that will involve your insurance company. If you are unlucky enough not to have insurance, you may find yourself in a financial world of hurt. And even with insurance, you’ll still feel it in your wallet as it will raise the prices of your policies, it can also cause exponential trouble as fraudulent accidents will show up on your driving records and history all the same.

The ways to combat such fraudulent activities can done done through the following:

Immediate Actions

Immediately contacting and involving your insurance company will help eliminate time and opportunity for ambiguity. The more time passes, the less information you or any other witness may be able to retain. You want to communicate as much detail as possible and get the facts down quickly. Once you are in contact with your insurance provider, stay involved in the claims to ensure your stories and all the facts lineup.

Trust

Ensure that those assisting you medically and financially, are trusted individuals or parties. If your doctor or insurance company has a bad wrap and may be linked to dirty business schemes, you may be at risk for getting involved, even involuntarily, yourself. This can happen if, for example, you were to be involved in an accident and go to a doctor who refers you to service that you don’t need, so your lawyer files lawsuits for injuries that you don’t have. Now you’re involved in a circle of fraud that will be even harder to get out of.

Protection

Because injury fraud can be claimed in any setting, you must take the necessary precautions to protect yourself. Any time you invest a large amount of money or time into something, you may have to think about how to protect it, and that may involve insurance. You need to ensure you have the right protection whether that’s auto or home, or even event liability insurance because your car, company, home, and even large events can be susceptible to fraudulent claims. Know the risks of your daily routines and the things that you need to be covered for, and this will better help you in preparing and preventing insurance fraud.

Now that you understand some of the ways you can combat insurance fraud, here are some types of fraudulent schemes that you should keep mindful of:

Staging a Vehicle Crash

What this can involve is an individual waiting or getting you into a lane or area, perhaps waving into a lane or intersection, and as you make your move, they pull their vehicle into your path and cause a collision where you appear to be the one to hit the other party. Once the collision occurs, the individual who may have initially waved you on will deny any sort of action, putting the onus on you to provide evidence that you were not at fault.

Exaggeration

When you are involved in an accident, there may be injuries that have occurred and received by those involved. Those with injuries have the right to claim them and receive money to cover costs and fees that will go to doctor and therapy visits. Fraud is involved when those parties claim injuries that are not there, falsifying claims by exaggerating the extent of an injury to receive more money.

Existing Injuries

Similar to the exaggeration of injuries, these claims occur when those with pre-existing injuries not due to any collision or accident are claimed as a result by the parties as due to the exact incident.

False Theft Claims

This occurs when a claim is filed to report a vehicle, or other covered item or home, is stolen or broken into when it was not, or claiming theft of items that were not actually stolen.

Pre Existing Damage

Like claiming your own pre existing injuries, if a party claims damage like dents or scratches due to an accident, even if it was there before and not caused by that accident, this is another form of fraud.

We all need insurance. There are dangers in the world that sometimes, you cannot foresee or even prepare for. For those instances, for the things out of our control, insurance plans are there to alleviate the stresses of having to handle the ordeal. But with that solution, there’s going to be people out there that try to game and manipulate the system, so you need to be wary and be prepared to handle the curveballs life throws at you.