{"id":13037,"date":"2015-01-27T11:46:49","date_gmt":"2015-01-27T19:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.freeway.com\/?p=13037"},"modified":"2015-01-27T11:46:49","modified_gmt":"2015-01-27T19:46:49","slug":"california-auto-insurance-agency-helps-police-spot-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.freeway.com\/blog\/auto-insurance\/california-auto-insurance-agency-helps-police-spot-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"California Auto Insurance Agency Helps Police Spot Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"

A California auto insurance<\/a> agency recently
\nstaged a car crash event in Glendale, California to help local law enforcement officers
\nidentify insurance fraud. Insurance fraud may seem like a victimless crime to those that
\nperpetrate it, but it causes auto insurance rates to rise for everyone. In fact, the higher
\nrates caused by fraudulent activity are extremely impactful, causing honest Californians
\nto pay an extra of $15 billion annually.<\/p>\n

You read that correctly. In the state of California alone, $15 billion are lost to insurance
\nfraud, and Mercury Insurance, the insurance agency behind this event, is working to
\nlower that number as much as possible by arming local police with the knowledge and
\nexperience they need to identify and prevent fraudulent activity.<\/p>\n

National Director of Special Investigations for Mercury Insurance Dan Bales was
\npresent at the event, overseeing the crashes and explaining the event to the press. He
\nasserted that there is a clear and noticeable difference between a real collision and a
\nstaged one, and that it\u2019s extremely important for law enforcement to know the
\ndifference.<\/p>\n

The event, sponsored by Mercury Insurance, showed multiple car accidents of varying
\nseverity and allowed insurance investigators and adjusters to examine the scene and
\nlearn how to spot insurance fraud in a hands-on setting. The most common signs of
\ninsurance fraud are often the most apparent, and this event served to help officials
\nidentify red flags.<\/p>\n

Glendale law enforcement was also in attendance at the event, and since police are
\nusually the first at the scene of an accident, it\u2019s important that they know the signs of
\ninsurance fraud. Since they see the accident immediately after it happens, they have a
\nhigher chance of spotting fraudulent behavior before evidence can be tampered with.<\/p>\n

These demonstrations serve to benefit both the insurance industry and consumers,
\nsince consumers are forced to cover the cost of insurance scammers looking for a quick
\nand easy buck. The cost of fraud is added onto the premiums of all consumers, and the
\naverage Californian consumer ends up paying between $400 and $700 annually to
\ncover the costs of fraudulent activity.<\/p>\n

Fraud is a growing epidemic in the United States, costing American consumers over
\n$80,000 each and every year. As that number continues to rise, insurance companies
\nlike Mercury Insurance must fight against scammers for the good of not only consumers
\nbut businesses and society as a whole. Anyone can be a victim of insurance fraud at
\nany time, and as it continues to grow, car insurance premiums will rise, robbing innocent
\nand honest consumers of hundreds of dollars annually. If this trend is allowed to
\ncontinue, American consumers will soon be paying over $1,000 on average annually.<\/p>\n

American insurance fraud ruins lives, costs individuals hard-earned money, and can
\njeopardize the health, lives, and property of anyone that relies on any kind of insurance.
\nDo your part and help law enforcement officials and insurance workers spot fraud, and
\ndon\u2019t be tempted to exaggerate your insurance claims. This is not a victimless crime.<\/p>\n

How do you think insurance fraud can be stopped? Have you ever been a victim of
\ninsurance fraud or scamming? Share your experiences in the comments and help other
\nreaders prevent future theft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A California auto insurance agency recently staged a car crash event in Glendale, California to help local law enforcement officers identify insurance fraud. Insurance fraud may seem like a victimless crime to those that perpetrate it, but it causes auto insurance rates to rise for everyone. In fact, the higher rates caused by fraudulent activity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[302],"tags":[193],"importance":[],"type-content":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freeway.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freeway.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freeway.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freeway.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freeway.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.freeway.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freeway.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freeway.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freeway.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13037"},{"taxonomy":"importance","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freeway.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/importance?post=13037"},{"taxonomy":"type-content","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freeway.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-content?post=13037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}