Spectators at the “Cage of Fire and Strength” tournament would not have guessed that fighter “Noodle” Davis was disabled.

In fact, that’s what he was telling his employer and workers compensation carrier to believe. The Los Angeles fireman is one case among many in a growing population that is bilking employers, insurers and taxpayers in bogus comp and disability scams.

Recent statistics show a 20% increase in questionable workers compensation claims, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Comp cases are unfortunately often seen as lighthearted types of scams. Rather than gruesome surgeries, or fatal arsons, fraudulent comp claims frequently involve uninjured workers faking ailments. Amusing surveillance videos may accompany such cases. They include classics like a “back injury” case, where the worker is filmed playing basketball or lifting boxes, and a “leg injury” case, with an employee throwing a walker into the trunk and jumping in the car.

Most comp fraud cases involve a single worker trying to scheme the system, like Noodle Davis’ case. Workers also may cash in on the comp income while earning money illicitly on the side. Ohio photographer Richard Ketcham was sentenced last week for running a photo business while supposedly disabled. In Massachusetts, a corrections officer ran a body shop while collecting comp money.

Disability fraud has at times turned into a group affair. The ongoing Long Island Rail Road bust has netted the arrests of numerous workers, doctors and even an electrician, who all allegedly were cooperating toward a fraudulent early retirement. For years, workers retired by claiming disabling injuries. Many collected tens of thousands of dollars while playing golf and other recreational sports.

Comp fraud also can turn tragic. When a California contractor fell from a tree and died, his grieving family learned the man’s employer hadn’t purchased the required coverage. Early this year, a Massachusetts roofer admitted to misclassifying his business and lying about payroll to illegally lower his comp premiums —  leaving employees dangerously uncovered when injury strikes.

At all ends of the spectrum, comp and disability fraud are serious issues. Stealing comp money raises premiums and threatens jobs. Taxpayers are ripped off, as well, as in the Long Island Rail Road case. And the wellbeing of uncovered workers and their families is jeopardized.

But as the latest convictions show, these frauds also are serious business for scammers who think they’ll go undetected and get away with flagrant thievery.

About the author: Jennifer Tchinnosian is communications specialist for the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.

I’m in negotiations to buy a new home and have started gathering intelligence on the sellers to understand their motivations and gain an upper hand in our deliberations. Now I’m no great sleuth and don’t have access to many of the tools investigators use these days. But I do know my way around the Internet, so I start with Google and get some basic information on the young couple selling this house, such as their occupations, published writings, schools they attended, etc. Interesting, but hardly insightful.

Then I turn to Facebook. From checking up on long-ago girlfriends and long-forgotten college buddies, I know a lot of people keep their Facebook pages open — or just don’t know how to set the preferences to keep them from prying eyes. So I search on the husband’s name and get a quick match. Unfortunately, his page is restricted to his Friends.

Then I try the wife’s page and have better luck. It’s open for everyone to see. Perusing her page I get a sense of who she is, her likes, her friends and her hot buttons. And then a post from a couple months back hits me straight in the face — she announces to her friends she’s pregnant with her third child. Now this is a tiny house that must seem even smaller with two kids, let alone three. These are very motivated sellers and, with this nugget of information, I expect to buy this home at a very good price.

My little investigative endeavor pales against the exploits and successes insurance investigators are enjoying these days using social networking sites. An article in Business Insurance on Monday profiled several success stories on catching workers comp cheats.

Frank Pinder, head of GlobalOptions SIU, recently told us about a case of an injured worker who claimed he was too hurt to get out of bed, yet he had time to update his MySpace page and post upcoming dates and venues his rock band was playing. “When our investigator arrived at the gig, the drummer not only banged away for the entire set without pain, but showed no signs of injury when carrying his drum set and amplifiers on and off the stage,” Frank reported.

Another case involved a women who claimed fear of leaving home prevented her from working. Frank says it took a day for his investigators to check her Twitter page and her Tweets to learn about social events she was planning to attend including a friend’s baby shower.

With people in their 30s and 40s now dominating social media outlets, the Internet has become an invaluable tool for fraud investigators. If you have a clever example of using social media as an investigative tool, please share it with us.

I’m not familiar with the specifics of this case, but this is a much longer prison term than we’ve seen in many years for this type of fraud.

Ex-Prison Guard in Sacramento Sentenced To 7 Years

A former Folsom prison guard has been sentenced to seven years in prison for faking injuries to get money from the state.

It’s one of the most severe sentences ever for pension fraud in California.

June Lucena claimed she was too injured to work after falling 16 to 20 feet from a guard tower in 1999 and undergoing surgery on her shoulder and jaw.

But surveillance tape showed the 45-year-old piloting a jet ski and frolicking on a water slide.

A Sacramento County jury convicted Lucena on 14 counts of fraud for faking injuries to get workers’ compensation and state disability. Permanently disabled guards get tax-free pensions of half their pay for life.

Lucena’s attorney, Lance Daniel, called Friday’s sentence “outrageous,” and said he has filed notice to appeal.

Prison can be especially tough on ex-guards. This should serve as a strong deterrent to other prison employees in the state. Defrauding workers compensation isn’t worth the risk.

I’m old enough to admit I don’t know who Hannah Montana is and I’ve never heard her music. But she must be a huge sensation because people are willing to do foolish things to win tickets to her concerts.

The latest contest was a 40-yard dash for men dressed in women’s clothing, sponsored by a Hartford, Conn. radio station. Apparently, one workers comp claimant had nothing better to do one day last October, so he donned a dress, wig and high heels and entered the competition.

When a local tv station covered the drag race, an alert viewer spotted comp claimant Garrett Dalton, 41, and blew the whistle. It took a while, but Dalton, a corrections officer, was finally arrested this week for workers comp fraud. Being branded a cheat is shameful enough. But having your photo in drag plastered about? That ought to send a signal that cheating workers comp just isn’t worth it.