Home and Contents Insurance – Fraud Investigation Warnings

You might think it easy to defraud your home and contents insurance company. It is important to remember the implications if you are caught. There could be very serious consequences, even jail time. That is something you want to avoid.

You could be accused of insurance fraud even for the smallest of claims. For example, it is all too easy to add on an item or two when some of your belongings were damaged by water.

Here is a look at insurance fraud and how the insurance companies investigate it.

Assessment

An assessor will come to your home and inspect the damage. Many assessors will be looking for signs of manipulation other than natural or reasonable cause. These people may have worked as a police officer or a private investigator in the past. Most of them have some experience in another field that has experience that applies. They know what to look for and what to ask. The way you answer might give them a hint to what really happened. Remember, an assessor has the ability to look at a situation and deduce what has happened, and how that influenced the environment. If something looks suspicious, they will inform the insurance company.

Private Investigator

If the insurance company is suspicious of your claim, they may hire a private investigator to uncover more information. The private investigator will look at your statements, police reports and more. You might have made a boisterous comment about you did, at a party when you were drunk. Any little piece of information could be the downfall of your case. You never know who is listening and who might be an informant. Many private investigators will not tell even their close friends what their real occupation is.

Police Reports

You will often have to go to the police and complete a police report. What you write down is considered a very serious legal statement. Slight differences between your statement to the insurance company and the police report, may cause them to investigate further.

Analysis

Photos that are taken of any scene or situation may be used by your insurance company to further investigate the situation. They may hand over all the information, they have gathered to professional technicians, who can analyze what has happened much in the same way as with a crime scene. There are tell-tale signs in any scene or situation that those investigators are looking for. Modern technology and techniques are more sophisticated than you may think.

Further Questioning

If your insurance company is suspicious, they are likely to start asking you for more questions and investigate as much as they can. Discrepancies in your statements will lead to further investigation and possibly a court case.

Home insurance fraud is a very serious offense. There are serious fines and even more serious jail term risks for you if you are caught. You should always think twice about committing this crime. It might not be as easy as you think.