True Crime of Insurance Fraud Number 37
Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE presents videos so you can learn how insurance fraud is perpetrated and what is necessary to deter or defeat insurance fraud. This Video Blog of True Crime Stories of Insurance Fraud with the names and places changed to protect the guilty are all based upon investigations conducted by me and fictionalized to create a learning environment for claims personnel, SIU investigators, insurers, police, and lawyers better understand insurance fraud and weapons that can be used to deter or defeat a fraudulent insurance claim. Disasters bring out the best in people. Disasters also bring out the worst in people. Some risk their lives and fortunes to help victims. Others risk prison to profit for the disaster. After the January 17, 1994 Northridge earthquake insurance companies sent teams of experienced claims handlers and billions of dollars to Los Angeles county California to ease the effect of the earthquake on those of their customers prudent enough to buy earthquake insurance. Money was paid out quickly. Because of the extent of the disaster few controls were in place. Those who prey on the hardship of others descended on Southern California as the plague of frogs descended upon Egypt when the Pharaoh refused to heed Moses’ warning. Able Carpenter saw the earthquake as an opportunity to make an illegal fortune without effort. Able had worked for two months before the earthquake as a laborer on a construction project. He went door to door in Northridge convincing the residents whose homes were damaged that he would protect them from their evil insurers and repair their damaged homes quickly and efficiently. Able Carpenter now lives comfortably on the dividends. His customers still have broken homes and insufficient funds to complete repairs. The homeowners and the insurers were defrauded. Good faith claims handling hurt everyone but Able. Neither the homeowners nor the insurers had learned that when a deal sounds too good to be true it is.
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