Insurance fraud costs South Africa’s industry $390 million

California Insurance company Fraud scam

Every year, insurers are paying for this trend and that cost is being passed down to the consumer. South Africa’s short term coverage industry is paying an estimated $389.6 million every year (4 billion South African rand) in order to compensate for the insurance fraud that it is experiencing in that country. There have been a growing number of cases of fraudulent claims over the last few years. According to Santam Ltd., a Cape Town based short term insurer, this year, alone, there have already been 79 cases of commercial…

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New task force launched in California to fight against insurance fraud and an underground economy

The California Department of Insurance has announced that it will be joining the Department of Industrial Relations to fight against the state’s emerging underground economy. The two agencies have formed the Labor Enforcement Task Force in order to crack down on the violations against the state’s insurance and labor regulations that are rampant in this offshoot economy. Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones notes that this economy is mostly comprised of businesses who hire employees that are not fit for certain types of work. These businesses often fabricate documents concerning their employees…

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NICB announces Q3 increase in questionable claims by 7 percent

The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) has released its third quarter 2011 results from its referral reason analysis of questionable claims (QC). This report investigates six different types of claim referral reason categories. They are: workers’ compensation, casualty, property, commercial, vehicle, and miscellaneous. It compared the results among the third quarters of every year from 2009 to 2011. Questionable claims are those that are made to member insurance companies of NICB which must be referred to the bureau for closer review and potential investigation as a result of certain red…

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