NICB's Questionable Claims Jump 14 Percent in 2009

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Feb 04, 2010, 09:00 ET

Insurers Suspect Staged Accidents and Hail Damage Claims

DES PLAINES, Ill., Feb. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Insurance Crime Bureau today released its 2008-2009 comparison analysis of questionable claims.

A total of 85,209 questionable claims were referred to NICB in 2009 compared with 74,902 received in 2008, an increase of 14 percent. These are claims that NICB member insurance companies refer to NICB for closer review and investigation based on one or more indicators of fraud. A single claim may contain up to seven referral reasons. The full report is available at www.nicb.org.

As in previous reports, this review shows an overall increase in questionable claims submitted to NICB member insurance companies under property, casualty, commercial, vehicle and miscellaneous referral reasons.

"While there has been modest declines within a few categories of referrals, the overall number of questionable claims for 2009 is 14 percent higher than it was in 2008," said Joe Wehrle, NICB's president and chief executive officer.

"We've seen significant increases in questionable claims related to staged auto accidents where organized criminals are trying to collect for injuries after deliberately causing an auto accident. This increased reporting may be due in part to better awareness of these kinds of scams as we work with insurers and our law enforcement partners to alert them to the problem. Also, we have seen more questionable claims in the area of hail damage where unscrupulous roofing companies take advantage of storms to fake or deliberately cause damage to roofs in an effort to get insurers to pay for a replacement roof that wasn't damaged in the first place.

"Our member companies are to be commended for doing an excellent job of scrutinizing claims and referring them to NICB in an effort to ensure that their customers are not being cheated by the criminals who try to take advantage of the insurance company's desire to pay claims as quickly and efficiently as possible."

Anyone with information concerning vehicle theft and insurance fraud can report it anonymously by calling toll-free 1-800-TEL-NICB (1-800-835-6422), texting keyword "fraud" to TIP411 (847411) or by visiting our web site 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 more than 1,000 property and casualty insurance companies and self-insured organizations. NICB member companies wrote nearly $343 billion in insurance premiums in 2008, or more than 82 percent of the nation's property/casualty insurance.

SOURCE National Insurance Crime Bureau