Staged Accident Questionable Claims Up 46 Percent From 2007-2009

News provided by

May 10, 2010, 09:00 ET

DES PLAINES, Ill., May 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The latest report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) shows that staged accident questionable claims (QC) increased 46 percent from 2007 through 2009. Additionally, the ratio of staged accident QCs to overall bodily injury (BI) and personal injury protection (PIP) claims has increased over this period while the total number of BI and PIP claims has declined.

The top five states that generated the most staged accident QCs were: (1) Florida, 3,006; (2) New York, 1,680; (3) California, 1,619; (4) Texas, 792; and (5) Illinois, 433.

The five cities that generated the most staged accident QCs were: (1) New York City, 1,304; (2) Tampa, 562; (3) Miami, 511; (4) Orlando, 422; and (5) Houston, 376.

Staged accidents are dangerous criminal events that target innocent drivers with increasingly bold schemes aimed at defrauding insurance companies out of millions of dollars. Unless someone becomes suspicious, many of these staged accidents go undetected. NICB has created a series of videos demonstrating some of the most common types of staged accidents. They can be viewed here: https://www.nicb.org/multimedia/staged-videos/staged-accident-videos.

Consumers should visit https://www.nicb.org/theft_and_fraud_awareness/brochures to review our library of valuable theft and fraud awareness information where they can find a specific brochure describing staged accident fraud. It's free and it just might help prevent you from falling victim to fraud scams.

The complete staged accident questionable claims report is also available at www.nicb.org.

About the National Insurance Crime Bureau: headquartered in Des Plaines, Ill., the NICB is the nation's leading not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through information analysis, investigations, training, legislative advocacy and public awareness. The NICB is supported by nearly 1,100 property and casualty insurance companies and self-insured organizations. NICB member companies wrote over $319 billion in insurance premiums in 2009, or more than 78 percent of the nation's property/casualty insurance. That includes more than 93 percent ($151 billion) of the nation's personal auto insurance. To learn more visit www.nicb.org.

SOURCE National Insurance Crime Bureau