"How Does Insurance Fraud Hurt South Carolina Citizens?"
Columbia, S.C., April 28, 2004 -- Students from across the state were honored here this week for authoring winning essays on how insurance fraud hurts South Carolinians. The contest was sponsored by several state agencies and the S.C. Fraud Investigators Association. Winning essays are re-published below.
Winning Essays
The Hurt Spreads
-- Alex Rao, R.C. Edwards Middle School
Insurance Fraud: A Hole in the Pocket --
Ashley Renee Morgan, R.C. Edwards Middle School
A Scandalous Crime -- Jeuel Davis,
RC Edwards Middle School
Insurance Fraud in South Carolina
-- Corey Allen, RC Edwards Middle School
The Killer Crime -- Talene Amirkhanian,
RC Edwards Middle School
Insurance Fraud in South Carolina
-- Megan Jones, RC Edwards Middle School
Insurance Fraud
-- Kirsten Kaiser, RC Edwards Middle School
Insurance Fraud Hurts Everyone --
Kimberly Stiltz, Hunter-Kinard Tyler School
Insurance Fraud -- Angela Moss, York
Junior High School
Insurance Fraud in the Lives of South Carolina’s
Citizens -- Mitchell Plyler, York Junior High School
How Does Insurance Fraud Hurt SC Citizens?
-- Meaghan Champion, York Junior High School
Insurance Fraud -- Aubrie Phillips,
York Junior High School
Insurance Fraud Has Got To Stop --
Olivia Carpenter, York Junior High School
The Horrors of Insurance Fraud --
Bradneshia Coleman, Hunter Kinard Tyler School
How Does Insurance Fraud Hurt South Carolina
Citizens? -- Megan Padgett, Branchville High School
How Does Insurance Fraud Hurt S.C. Citizens?
-- Natasha Summers, Branchville High School
Insurance Fraud: Crimes & Cover-ups --
Shannon Smoak, Branchville High School
“Dial ‘F’ for Fraud”
-- Kimberly Ott, Branchville High School
South Carolina – Fraud Free --
Jessica Harvey, York Junior High School
The Hurt Spreads
By Alex Rao
R.C. Edwards Middle School
Insurance Fraud is a crime that is commonly attempted.
Many people think that insurance fraud is an easy way to get money
but it’s not. You end up paying back the money and serving
probation. People make excuses for insurance fraud such as “I
needed the money.” Even though that may be true it’s
still illegal to commit insurance fraud.
I committed insurance once and got caught. I know you were expecting
me to tell other people’s stories, but I’m going to
tell you mine too.
I was 20 , in my junior year of college. I wa sin serious debt with
the apartment I rented, the credit card bill and the car I was paying
off. I needed some quick cash. I decided to pretend my car was stolen
so I could collect the insurance money from the car insurance company.
I went to a club one night and had my friend “steal”
my car.
I called the insurance company to report the theft. They sent me
my money. I was doing just fine, paying off the bill on my old car
and having enough money to buy a new one when I realized I needed
insurance for my new civic.
When I was looking for a good place to buy insurance, I realized
the cost of insurance had gone up a lot. I wondered what was going
on for a while when suddenly it hit me, since I made the insurance
company pay for my car, they raised costs to get the money back.
“Aww, man, now I’ve got to pay like twice as much for
insurance!”
The next morning the cops were at my door.
“Sir, we would like to know why you had your friend steal
your car,” said the officer.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play dumb. We found your friend driving down
the highway in the stolen car. He told us everything. Now don’t
make this hard.”
I was sentenced to 6 months of probation.
It was a lesson I had to learn the hard way. I, like many others,
was suffering from my foolish idea. I was suffering probation. They
were suffering premiums increasing. I know what I did was wrong
and I wont’ do it again.
Now that I know what insurance fraud can do to people, I feel like
a real jerk. I might even thing about working to stop insurance
fraud.
(P.S. None of the part about me committing insurance fraud is true)
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essay titles.
Insurance Fraud: A Hole in the Pocket
By Ashley Renee Morgan
R.C. Edwards Middle School
Insurance Fraud can leave many South Carolina citizens
in deep debt. When somebody commits an insurance fraud, the people
who already have insurance have to pay for the money lost by the
insurance company. Most of the people who have ever committed an
insurance fraud don’t even notice that they are cheating other
people out of their money, but in all reality, they are.
In my opinion, anyone who is low enough to commit an insurance fraud
is just plain greedy. In one case, believe it or not, a mother took
her own daughter’s insurance money. The mother spent the money
while her child was in need of it! What kind of mother would do
that? Not a loving one, that’s for sure.
There are many ways that you can commit an insurance fraud. From
what I’ve learned, it isn’t’ that hard to get
by with it either: burning your house down to get house insurance
money, claiming you are disabled and getting disability income,
reporting that your expensive ring was stolen and getting the money
to replace it. See what extremes people will go to , just to get
some free money? I have a feeling money will never be that important
to me.
To understand insurance fraud, you may want to know what the definitions
of insurance and fraud are. Insurance means insuring people , or
their property . Meaning it keeps people insured, knowing that if
they are injured or lose their property, they will receive the money
to pay for everything. The term ‘fraud’ means misrepresentation
intended to deceive. When you put the tow together, you are misrepresenting
yourself and using the insurance company’s money to work your
way through it.
As you should now be able to see, the people who are committing
insurance fraud are greatly hurting South Carolina citizens. Don’t’
let one of those people be you if insurance fraud goes to far, other
innocent insurance payers may go into debt. All for a stranger’s
wrong doings. Something most definitely needs to be done about insurance
fraud, or we may all end up in debt.
Return to essay titles.
A Scandalous Crime
By Jeuel Davis
RC Edwards Middle School
“Oh my gosh,” Michelle shouted. “Look
at this insurance bill!”
“Jeff, we are paying and extra one thousand dollars this year
because people in our state are committing insurance fraud,”
she said.
“Michelle, we don’t’ have the money to be paying
an extra one thousand dollars this year,” Jeff exclaimed.
“Well, we are just going to have to budget more on groceries,
clothes and other needs,” Michelle explained. “In addition,
you know there will be no vacations,” she said.
“I’ll just have to work more hours at the office.”
Jeff sighed. “You might even have to get a job yourself, Michelle,”
Jeff said.
“I guess so,” Michelle sighed. “We will figure
it out.”
Do you want this to happen to you? Well read this paper to learn
about insurance fraud so this won’t happen to you.
First, as you can see, when someone commits insurance fraud it affects
more than just that person. It affects other citizens too. Insurance
fraud first affects people’s money. In the story, that couple
and their family will have to budget more because of that extra
one thousand dollars. That is a lot of money! Many citizens in South
Carolina are probably in debt. So making them pay more for insurance
is not helping them at all. It also forces people to buy less consumer
goods. Therefore their families will also suffer from insurance
fraud. Does that make you angry? Well, it makes me angry too. So
let us do something to stop it!
Next, it will probably also affect South Carolina citizen’s
jobs. Grocery stores will be influenced because if families have
to buy less consumer good which includes food and clothing and appliances,
then they won’t be bringing in as much money. That means people
might lose their jobs so that the stores and companies can save
money. Also, the citizen’s salaries could be affected so once
again the stores and companies can save money. Second, it could
affect tourism for South Carolina. Now, families will have to save
their money for insurance instead of vacations because they might
not have extra money to spend on trips. Therefore, tourism profits
will probably go down because people are saving money. Once again,
citizens might lose their jobs and get a lower salary because the
beaches and major cities will probably need it. Another reason why
South Carolina wants insurance fraud stopped.
“Hey Jeff look what I found on the internet,” Michelle
exclaimed. “Here is a hotline we can call if we hear bout
insurance fraud.”
“For now though, I figure that if you get a full time job,
and I work overtime in the office, then we should be able to pay
the extra money.”
“The kids will just have to watch over each other while I’m
gone,” Michelle said.
“I can’t believe how much one person can affect so many
other people!” Jess said exasperated.
In conclusion, insurance fraud is a scandalous and an unethical
crime. It does affect South Carolina citizens terribly. It hurts
their profits, money and jobs. Hopefully my essay has changed someone’s
perspective in a way that they will change someone else’s.
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essay titles.
Insurance Fraud in South Carolina
By Corey Allen
RC Edwards Middle School
Insurance fraud not only affects South Carolina citizens
but many people nationwide. For example, property and casualty fraud
cost insurers $27 billion in 2001 and cost the average household
$200 to $300 on insurance premiums. Also, the national Insurance
Crime Bureau says that insurance fraud raises taxes and inflates
prices on consumer goods. Finally, it is hard to track down the
violators.
Insurance fraud does horrible things to the violator. Most of the
time, they are put on probation. Secondly, they must pay a fine
and pay back all the money they stole from insurer. The person then
loses all their pride and self-respect. They could hurt their community
if they had not already done so during the fraud. Lastly, they probably
will not properly respected in their community again. As you can
see, the communities in South Carolina are deeply affected by insurance
fraud.
Next, I will tell you about some outrageous examples of insurance
fraud in South Carolina 2002. A lake Murray woman was convicted
of Making a False Statement while working as a fishing guide. In
her papers she had claimed that she was not working and was unable
to work. Since she had been illegally receiving disability income,
government investigators paid her to take them on a two-day fishing
trip. While on her trip, they videotaped her filleting fish, moving
gas tanks, bending over to hook lines, and using fishing net. Later
she was sentenced to probation and restitution. Second, a Richland
county woman was convicting of Presenting A False Claim for Payment.
She had been in a car accident with her daughter. The daughter had
occurred hospital bills as a minor, but the woman took money from
the State Farm Insurance, cashed the money, and never did pay the
hospital. She was ordered to pay back her daughter and received
a fine. Third, a Columbia boy claimed that his truck had been stolen
from a local club. The boy said that he had been in the club all
night. After an investigation by the Columbia Police Department,
his truck was found burned. His cell phone had been used from the
site of the fire just before the call to the fire department . He
was convicted of insurance fraud and ordered to pay a fine and restitution.
Many other bizarre cases have occurred in the past five years in
South Carolina
Fourth, I will tell you about fraud in South Carolina. Every year
in South Carolina, hundreds of arson cases are reported to the South
Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Also, nearly one thousand cases
of insurance fraud are reported to the South Carolina Attorney General’s
Insurance Fraud Division. Also, South Carolina Arson and Insurance
Fraud investigators work daily to stop fraud.
Last, I will tell you about fraud in general. There are seven common
types of insurance fraud. They are: underreporting miles driven
on an auto policy, failing to report an accurate medical history,
faking injuries to avoid work, falsifying and/or exaggerating auto
accident injuries, staging car accidents, drawing benefits because
of fake injures, and exaggerating stolen items. Insurance fraud
deeply hurts our state!
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essay titles.
The Killer Crime
By Talene Amirkhanian
RC Edwards Middle School
I, Kathy Rae Caylor, have done some wrongs in South
Carolina. For you who don’t know me, I have committed insurance
fraud. This year alone, including my cases, six hundred and seven
insurance fraud cases have been reported. Twenty-nine cases resulted
in civil memoranda of understanding and thirty-eight resulted in
guilty pleas. In one year, other criminals and I have helped to
reach the total amount of two million dollars because of reported
frauds.
For those South Carolina citizens that don’t understand my
profession, listen up! Insurance fraud is when you say that you’re
disabled, dead, etc…when everything is fine, or you committed
the crime to get money from the insurance companies. For example,
I burned my car and told the insurance companies that someone stole
my car. The insurance companies paid me the money. Later on, I got
arrested for insurance fraud. When you commit insurance fraud, you
cheat insurance companies out of a lot of money. So far, I have
not gotten away with one crime! I have either been sent to jail
or had to serve three weeks on probation. Too bad in South Carolina
it is considered a felony. Police forces seem to be more alert these
days!
I have hurt many South Carolina citizens. An average family pays
about one thousand dollars a year because of the crimes that I have
committed. Insurance fraud cheats many customers out of their money.
They end up paying for the bad things that I have done. Every time
I decide to commit insurance fraud, it takes state and insurance
industry out of millions of dollars. This could be really hard on
South Carolina Citizens. For example, if I told the insurance companies
that my husband died, and they found out that he didn’t. I’d
be in big trouble. I would have to go to court and face insurance
companies. The companies have to use money to hire lawyers, present
a case, and so on. That would take money away from South Carolina
citizens and insurance companies. Boy, insurance fraud is a costly
crime.
Lucky for South Carolina citizens, many people are trying to put
an end to what I do! South Carolina officials declared September
22-26 Insurance Fraud Awareness week. (Good thin I commit my crimes
in the winder) They’re also setting up hotlines to report
cases to the Attorney General’s Insurance Fraud Division.
Unfortunately for me, the hotline is open seven days a week, twenty-four
hours a day. The tip line (1.888.95.FRAUD) is a major part of public
awareness. Wow, so much is being done to put an end to my profession.
Insurance Fraud hurts almost every South Carolina citizen. When
someone commits insurance fraud it takes money away from innocent
families and insurance companies. The only bad thing about being
a criminal is the consequences. That’s all I have to say about
my job! Warn your friends!
Insurance fraud hurts everyone.
Return to essay titles.
Insurance Fraud in South Carolina
By Megan Jones
RC Edwards Middle School
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Janie Woods, and I am a resident in the
State of South Carolina. For the past few years, our state has had
problems with insurance fraud. As an upstanding citizen, I would
like to voice my opinions about the issues it has caused. Protecting
my rights is something that I feel very strongly about. This is
the very reason why I am writing this extensive letter, which I
would like you to take into consideration.
To begin with, I would like to tell you what my idea of insurance
fraud is. In my eyes, insurance fraud is misrepresenting a fact
or facts in order to get extra money from your insurance company.
I believe that some of the leading types of insurance fraud are
staged auto accidents, fake accident claims, phony workplace injuries,
and arson. An act such as this is generally more prevalent in a
recession than after a major catastrophe. Insurance fraud is now
considered a felony in most of the states in our country. What I
am trying to say, is that having an understanding of what insurance
fraud is, helps a person understand how it affects them.
Secondly, insurance fraud hurts the citizens of South Carolina in
many ways. For one thing, it costs an average family almost $1000
a year. This money is obtained by raising the cost of certain items
that are necessary for families. The extra money that is made goes
to the crime of insurance fraud. That money could be used for other
things such as building schools, roads, hospitals and airports.
It could also be used to improve the society by setting up fun activities
for the families to get involved in. insurance fraud can also bring
on crimes such as murders. I personally feel that when someone in
a town commits insurance fraud, it gives the rest of the town a
bad name. All in all, insurance fraud has definitely hurt my family
and all of the other citizens of South Carolina.
Third, knowing examples of insurance fraud can help one understand
the intensity of this crime. A potential example could be that a
father, the money maker in the family, says he has broken his leg
and that his wife is not capable of working. A later investigation
could find out that the man had been health all along and that his
wife taught school. He would then have to pay back all of the money
he was given. Another example could be that someone sets their car
on fire to later say that it has spontaneously combusted. Although
this may seem impossible, remains of his car were found, and evidence
proved that he had, in fact, set it on fire. The man would then
be sentenced to probation and have to pay the money back to his
insurance company.
Altogether, insurance fraud badly hurts the citizens of South Carolina.
The extra expenses and the bad names it gives to the town are just
a few negative results of this crime. I hope that this informative
letter I am sending to you has let you know how the citizens of
this state feel. I am not asking that you adopt my opinions, but
that you just think about them. Thank you again for your time and
effort that was put into helping stop insurance fraud.
Sincerely,
Janie Woods
South Carolina Citizen
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essay titles.
Insurance Fraud
By Kirsten Kaiser
RC Edwards Middle School
Insurance fraud is a problem affecting many people
in South Carolina. It costs the average family about one thousand
dollars per year. It also raises the prices of goods and services.
One very common type of insurance fraud is faking injury to receive
disability income or faking accidents to your car. Another type
is claiming that you or your husband died to get money. Saying that
your husband died could get you up to four hundred thousand dollars!
What surprises me most is that one in three Americans think insurance
fraud is all right.
I have a couple of example of insurance fraud for you. One is a
lady that collected disability income when she was perfectly fine.
She lives in lake Murray and works as a fishing guide. She reported
that she was not working and not capable of working. Investigators
went fishing for two days and saw her filleting fish, moving gas
tanks, bending over to hook lines, and using a fishing net. She
was convicted of Making a False Statement or Misrepresentation.
Another example is a woman in Anderson county who reported that
her husband died. She almost got four hundred thousand dollars!
She got arrested, but did it again! When she got out of jail she
reported her own death to the insurance company. She got no money
and was arrested again.
Insurance fraud is very bad and should not be tolerated in South
Carolina.
Return to essay titles.
Insurance Fraud Hurts Everyone
By Kimberly Stiltz
Hunter-Kinard Tyler School
It is shocking to realize that insurance fraud hurts
everyone, not just the insurance companies. False claims cost Americans
billions of dollars every year. The total of Auto, Home, businesses
and Heath fraud was $96 billion in 1999. Fraud costs Americans an
averate of $1,000 extra in insurance premiums every year. It is
estimated that at least 10 percent of all insurance claims are fraudulent
or highly inflated.
People devise all kinds of strange plans to get money from their
insurance companies. Some of the most frequent fraudulent claims
are staged automobile accidents. People claim whiplash, hurt backs,
legs, and arms, when they have not really suffered an injury at
all. I hear about a woman who claimed to have been hit by cars ten
times through the years. She would step in front of a slow moving
car at an intersection, scream and fall down before the car even
touched her.
People claim to have been injured at work, or in a car wreck, and
deliberately injure themselves so they can collect money. Many times
cars are reported stolen, and they are later found burned or at
the bottom of a lake somewhere. One of the strangest claims was
made by a a man who said that his tractor had been stolen. Investigators
discovered that he had dug a deep hole and buried the tractor! It
was reported that a number of people filed false claims that their
husbands or wives had been killed in the World Trade Center on 9-11
when the terrorists destroyed the twin towers.
When robberies occur, people often fraudulently claim to have lost
very expensive jewelry and other objects of great value. People
also set fire to their own homes to obtain insurance money. This
often happens when a home has been hard to sell, or when people
are having financial difficulties.
We can help to reduce false claims by calling the South Carolina
Insurance Fraud hotline at 1.888.95.FRAUD, if we see or hear anything
suspicious. One of the most important things we can do is make a
personal decision to never make a fraudulent claim ourselves.
Return to essay titles.
Insurance Fraud
by Angela Moss
York Junior High School
Insurance fraud cost the average American family $1,000
per year. In South Carolina alone, there were 914 insurance fraud
cases in 2002. That year alone cost South Carolina $47 million dollars.
There are many ways to commit insurance fraud. People fake car accidents,
job injuries, and arson. Ten percent of auto, home, and business
insurance claims are either frauds or they are inflated. The most
common insurance fraud cases are fake car accidents, fake accident
claims, fake job injuries, and arson.
Americans are becoming less tolerant of insurance fraud. Auto insurance
is definitely one of the most common frauds. Seventy-eight percent
of Americans are worried about auto insurance fraud in their state
because it leads to higher rates.
The penalties of committing insurance fraud are fines up to jail
time. In some cases, insurance fraud is considered a felony.
Health insurance is another common fraud. The biggest fraud in the
health insurance is medicare and medicade.
In 2002, the insurance fraud cost us $31 billion dollars. I think
that people shouldn’t try to get more money by faking accidents
and lying. American should be more aware of this problem because
it is costing taxpayers more money because of dishonest people.
It’s not fair to hard-working people to lay liars money.
Some people will get people to hurt them on purpose to fake an injury
or they will wreck their car on purpose. In one case, this man got
his friend to hit him with a board and he wrecked his motorcycle.
Some people hide their cars and say that they were stolen. If people
were honest, maybe our insurance rates would not be so high. If
fraud was a business, it would be one of the top businesses in the
world.
Auto theft is probably one of the biggest frauds, but the most unbelievable
case are when this person filed a claim saying his car was stolen,
eventually they found the car burned. When somebody said that the
car was set on fire by using kerosene, one of the guys said that
they used gasoline, not kerosene. One woman claimed that her husband
died, until they found out that he was still alive. Later on they
found out she claimed that she had died and had collected $400,000.
On Christmas, one man set his family’s home on fire. What
will people do for money? I think it is sad that some people will
do just about anything to get money.
People in South Carolina need to be honest and report any insurance
fraud. South Carolina’s mandatory reporting act states, “…
any person, insurer, authorized agency having reason to believe
that another had made false statements or misrepresentation or has
knowledge of a suspected false statement or misrepresentation shall,
for purpose of reporting and investigation, notify South Carolina’s
Attorney General’s Insurance fraud hotline at 1-888-95-FRAUD
(toll free in SC).”
I think that South Carolina needs to be more honest. Insurance fraud
needs to be reported more often.
Return to essay titles.
Insurance Fraud in the Lives
of South Carolina’s Citizens
by Mitchell Plyler
York Junior High School
Insurance fraud is a purposeful deception aimed against
or for an insurance company with the goal of making a profit. Do
people truly do this? Yes. Do they get away with it? Yes. Does it
adversely affect the citizens of South Carolina? Yes.
Insurance fraud is a highly common way to make some quick cash.
Three main categories involving fraud are auto, home, and business
insurance. Many fraudulent claims in these categories include staged
accidents, “workplace” injuries, and arson. A staged
accident is an accident that has been planned by a person or group
of persons to be able to collect on. An example could be an automotive
accident that is planned to collect on car insurance and “injury”.
There are two types of common “workplace” injuries involved
in insurance fraud. One type involves an injury outside of a job
that is claimed to be received in the workplace. This allows the
person making the claim to get free medical and workman’s
compensation, which pays them even though they are not working.
Arson, pertaining to insurance frauds is burning an item, house
or car, etc., for the reason of collecting insurance money. I heard
a story of a man who owned a lumber company. This company had recently
laid off workers, and those laid off were enraged. They acted against
their employer and burned down his lumber yard. The owner of the
lumber yard was able to collect insurance for everything his company
owned. The fraud in this story is that about half of the company’s
possessions were in perfect condition, thus the owner committed
a fraudulent act.
Now you may ask: How does this affect South Carolina’s citizens?
An average of one thousand dollars per household per year in insurance
premiums. That’s how it affects the average South Carolina
citizen! We, the citizens, have to pay for what these fraudulent
crooks have taken. There were nine hundred fourteen cases of insurance
fraud reported in 2002. That’s nine hundred reported cases
that the citizens of South Carolina are having to pay for. That’s
not to mention frauds that were never caught or noticeable.
So what is being done to stop insurance fraud? The insurance companies
themselves have taken action. They have formed Special Investigation
Units (SIU’s) that check into claims that reek of insurance
fraud, those claims that have an easily noticeable flow.
The SIU’s can catch the big fish, but the little fish swim
right through the net. If someone’s jewelry is stolen out
of their house and it’s worth three hundred dollars, that
person could easily claim four or five hundred dollars worth if
insurance money. Many of these fairly small frauds are un-noticed
or unchecked, because they seem plausible. This allows the opportunist
to get away with some easy money.
Since these small fish slip through the net of the SIU, the South
Carolina citizens have to pay for the criminals who take advantage
of simple insurance fraud. These small robberies are minor, but
this adds up to millions of extra dollars taken and paid by the
state and its citizens. What can the citizens of South Carolina
do to rid the state of insurance fraud? That is decided by the citizens
and their choices.
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essay titles.
How Does Insurance Fraud Hurt
SC Citizens?
by Meaghan Champion
York Junior High School
Insurance fraud is a crime that is occurring more
often each year. As a matter of fact, six-hundred seven cases of
insurance fraud have been reported in SC this year, with thirty
eight guilty please.
Some types of insurance fraud include catastrophe, worker’s
compensation, e-commerce, auto and health, but there are many others.
It can range from lying on an insurance application to staging accidents.
Also, about 40% of Americans think it is okay to pad an insurance
claim, and one in three Americans say it is all right to exaggerate
insurance claims under certain circumstances.
It sometimes seems difficult to understand how insurance fraud hurts
South Carolina citizens, but there are definite affects to these
crimes. The most obvious and most significant of these effe3cts
are the great losses of money in SC.
First, fraud cost up to eighty-five billion dollars in 1999. In
2001, it cost twenty-seven billion dollars in property and casualty
fraud alone. And where does the money come from? It comes from us.
South Carolina citizens. Most people think fraud is a victimless
crime, but you are the victim. As a result of insurance fraud, Americans
pay an extra one thousand thirty dollars per year in insurance premiums.
For this reason, 78% of Americans are becoming concerned about the
effects of insurance fraud on auto insurance.
Secondly, staging fake accidents and faking disabilities is causing
major problems in SC. These very detailed crimes cost great amounts
of money to stage, as well as for insurance companies to cover.
All of this money is being wasted on people whose main purpose is
to take advantage of hardworking South Carolina citizens in order
to earn money fast. As a matter of fact, some fraud cases are so
heinous that their coordinators fake their own death or the death
of a loved one to earn money very quickly.
Last, the rise of insurance premiums due to insurance fraud makes
it difficult for low-income families to have insurance coverage.
Some families in South Carolina have a hard time paying these high
premiums, so there are many low-income families without insurance,
mainly health insurance.
All of these problems are because of criminals who want to earn
easy money, including a man who stages a motorcycle accident by
having a friend hit him with a board to fake injuries, and the men
who claim that their car “spontaneously” burst into
flames in order to collect insurance money.
Although only thirty eight out of these six-hundred seven fraud
cases pleas guilty, it is imperative to crack down on the criminals
taking advantage of our insurance system. A problem that must first
be addressed to snub the criminals is that civil and criminal penalties
for insurance fraud have decreased in the last decade. Insurance
fraud offenders should be more harshly punished to show that the
crimes they are committing are serious offenses because they affect
a vast number of people.
As Phil Porter, S.C. Consumer Advocate and member of the Coalition
Against Insurance fraud says, “The message is a simple, yet
powerful one: we all pay for insurance fraud, it’s time to
fight back.”
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essay titles.
Insurance Fraud
By Aubrie Phillips
York Junior High School
Insurance fraud can be simple as lying on an insurance
application or as serious as “staging” accidents. So
how does insurance fraud hurt South Carolina citizens? Insurance
fraud is a major problem in South Carolina and it hurts the citizens
by the loss of money or total amount of money the citizens pay for
insurance or taxes.
Insurance fraud is a deliberate deception perpetrated against or
by an insurance company or agent for the purpose of financial gain.
Some of South Carolina’s top ten most outrageous cases of
insurance fraud are examples of how insurance fraud hurts its citizens.
For example, a York County man admitted to having a friend hit him
with a board to fake injuries from a stages motorcycle accident.
The man later had claimed to the insurance company that a woman
backing out of a parking lot hit him. The insurance company investigated
the “accident” and found that the mans motorcycle was
wrecked before the false claim was made. Because of this, he received
a one year jail sentence.
Other problems include filing an insurance claim for their own car.
People would deliberately burn their own car just to receive money
from insurance.
Also it’s a fact that a woman in Anderson County had filed
a death claim producing an obituary, certificate of death and funeral
home mane upon her so called “dead husband.” When an
investigation accurated, it was discovered that the husband is alive
and well I might add. The woman also claimed that SHE HERSELF is
DEAD and was almost paid over $400,000.
A man was also said to have burnt his own family home down, during
Christmas Day. This man as admitted setting 2 fires at his family
home and making 2 false insurance claims.
All of these examples are reasons why insurance fraud hurts South
Carolina citizens. The citizens have to pay the money that was taken
from the insurance company. Truthfully, if people would live honestly
and quit doing this stuff our insurance would be cut in half, which
would help South Carolina citizens. The rising price of insurance
is mainly affected in auto and health insurance.
Most states have passed laws which specifically define the crime
of insurance fraud, and which raise insurance fraud from the level
of a misdemeanor to a felony. Insurance fraud as a crime hurts South
Carolina’s citizens because they pay for other people’s
problems and bad choices. Although the citizens have no choice but
to pay the insurance company, the crime for insurance fraud is a
major problem in South Carolina and students at a young age need
to be aware of its negative affects.
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essay titles.
Insurance Fraud Has Got To
Stop
by Olivia Carpenter
York Junior High School
In this essay you will learn how insurance fraud hurts
South Carolina’s citizens. Insurance frau is a major concern
in the State of South Carolina. There are many types of insurance
fraud people have came up with. Such as staged auto accidents, fake
accident claims, phony workplace injuries, and arson. In the year
of 2003, six-hundred and seven cases of insurance fraud were reported
in South Carolina.
Insurance fraud affects many South Carolinians. An average American
household pays an extra one-thousand dollars a year due to insurance
fraud. In 1999, auto, home, and business insurance fraud costs Americans
twenty-four billion dollars. In the year 2001, property casualty
insurance fraud costs insurers twenty-seven billion dollars. Ten
percent of auto, home, and business insurance claims are fraudulent.
In this paragraph, you will view a few examples of insurance fraud.
There are many other cases, but these are just a small quantity
of them. Once there was a Cherokee County man who reported his jeep
stolen from his yard. The Jeep was found burned. Five people were
charged with insurance fraud. During court, the acquaintance mentioned
the Jeep was set on fire with kerosene. One of the defendants shouted
out, “I used gasoline, not kerosene!” All five of the
people admitted to setting the Jeep on fire, along with two other
vehicles. Also, in York County a man admitted to having his friend
hit him with a board to fake injuries from a motorcycle accident.
The man later claimed to the insurance company that a lady hit him
backing out of a parking lot. Later in the investigation, the insurance
company found out that his motorcycle was wrecked before the claim
was made. He received a year in jail for this false claim.
As you see from the examples above, insurance fraud is serious business.
In some cases of insurance fraud you can receive probation or even
jail time. Insurance fraud causes many citizens of South Carolina
to suffer. Some people can hardly survive paying just their car
payments, water bill, electricity bill, etc. I don’t think
it is fair for the South Carolinians to have to pay larger amounts
on their insurance for other peoples’ mistakes. It makes no
sense to me! In my opinion, I think the people who commit insurance
fraud should be put in jail for quite a long sentence. Every time
insurance fraud occurs, it causes every South Carolinians’
insurance rate to rise higher. There has already been a huge amount
of people to commit insurance fraud, so South Carolinians’
insurance rate is already quite high.
In conclusion, there needs to be a stop to all of this insurance
fraud. It won’t stop unless we get strict on the consequences
of committing this terrible crime. I hope that son or in the future,
that the government will put an end to insurance fraud.
I really enjoyed writing this essay! I was glad to finally be able
to express my opinion on insurance fraud. I hop you enjoyed reading
this essay as much as I did writing it. Thanks for allowing me to
express my opinion by this insurance fraud essay contest.
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essay titles.
The Horrors of Insurance Fraud
By Bradneshia Coleman
Hunter Kinard Tyler School
Insurance fraud is a criminal act in which a person
lies to the insurance company about property to obtain money. There
is a great consequence when a person commits insurance fraud. People
can serve many years in prison for insurance fraud. When a person
receives money from an insurance company by insurance fraud, the
citizens have to pay more money to the insurance company. This criminal
act must be stopped. If not, the country will go down economically.
There have been many cases of insurance fraud. In one case a man
falsified his wife’s death. He told policy that she lost her
life in the World Trade Center. He received over $250,000. The police
found them at their home in Georgia. The man and his wife are serving
10 years in prison because she knew about him falsifying her death.
Another case of insurance fraud was committed when a man told the
insurance company that his tractor was stolen. One of his neighbors
told policy that there was something sticking out of his field.
The policy dug up the object and found that it was the man’s
tractor. Then the man was arrested and had to serve a log of time
in prison.
As you can see, insurance fraud can get people in a whole lot of
trouble. That is why citizens must take action to prevent it. Ways
they can do this are: calling the insurance fraud hotline at 1-888-95-FRAUD
if they have witnessed it, talk people out of committing fraud if
they tell them they are going to commit it, and talk to their community
about it. These simple things could cause a big decrease in insurance
fraud and maybe even stop it.
In conclusion, insurance fraud is illegal and harmful to the economy.
People should take as much action as they possibly can to put an
end to it. Many people have been put in jail for insurance fraud
and that is not good. Everyone needs to think seriously about insurance
fraud and try their very best to prevent it.
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How Does Insurance Fraud Hurt
South Carolina Citizens?
by Megan Padgett
Branchville High School
“Auto, home, and business insurance fraud costs
Americans more than %85 billion a year. Fraud could be as simple
as misrepresenting facts on an insurance application or padding
or inflating actual claims or as serious as submitting claims for
injuries or damage that never occurred and staging accidents. At
least 10% of all auto, home, and business insurance claims are either
fraudulent or highly inflated.”
Studies show that one in three Americans believe it is “all
right” to pad claims to make up for premiums paid in previous
years when they had no claims., Most people think that fraud is
a victimless crime, but you are the victim.
Insurance fraud directly affects the amount you pay for health,
auto, & homeowner’s insurance and increases the prices
you pay for goods and services. Under South Carolina law, you MUST
report insurance fraud if you have reason to believe someone has
committed this crime. If insurance fraud were a business it would
be a Fortune 500 company.
Some ways people could participate in insurance fraud is: under-reporting
on their auto insurance policy application the number of miles they
drive, failing to report accurate medical history when they are
applying for health insurance, faking or exaggerating injuries to
avoid work and to draw workers compensation payout, falsifying or
overstating injuries in an auto accident to achieve a large settlement
or award, staging automobile accidents which result in claims for
non-existent injuries, fabricating relationships to draw life insurance
benefits, and exaggerating the amount and value of items stolen
from a home and business. It seems that even the most honest person
may have done one of these on a small scale or may know someone
who has done one of these. The problem is, it is wrong and costs
everyone.
South Carolina has become one of the most active states in the nation
when it comes to prosecuting insurance fraud. The S.C. Attorney
General’s office said “914 cases of insurance fraud
were reported in the state last year, resulting in the collection
of nearly $168,000 in court-ordered fines & restitution.”
According to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, South Carolina
was the second leading state in 2002 in the prosecution of insurance
fraud cases & the sixth leading state in the conviction of fraud
suspects.”
In 2002, the state spent an average of $3,000 on each of its 98
insurance frauds. “South Carolina had a 24% increase in investigations
and an 18 percent increase in indictments from 2002. The Attorney
General’s office received 844 complaints of insurance fraud
in 2003, with 44 percent focusing on auto insurance alone. The overall
number of fraud complaints had decreased 7 percent from 2002. This
brings the total to nearly $47 million in insurance fraud reported
and over $4 million in monies collected since the South Carolina
Attorney General’s Insurance Fraud Division began prosecuting
insurance fraud cases in May of 1995.
Most insurance companies now have their own Special Investigations
Unit (SIU’s) to check out suspected cases of insurance fraud.
To report suspected insurance fraud, call your insurance company
or the South Carolina Insurance Fraud hotline at 1-888-95-FRAUD.
This hotline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for reporting
insurance fraud, which can be a felony in South Carolina. All reports
remain confidential, and you do not have to give your name.
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essay titles.
How Does Insurance Fraud Hurt
S.C. Citizens?
by Natasha Summers
Branchville High School
Insurance fraud is a deliberate deception of South
Carolina citizens to receive financial gain. South Carolina citizens
are very concerned with how insurance fraud may be hurting them.
Insurance fraud is committed every year by a numerous amount of
people in South Carolina. Unfortunately, insurance frauders fail
to realize they are infringing on the rights of other citizens.
One in three Americans believe it is all right to commit insurance
fraud. Insurance fraud directly affects the amount that is paid
for health, auto, and homeowner’s insurance.
There are several ways insurance fraud may hurt South Carolina citizens.
Insurance rates on cars for teenagers increase due to insurance
fraud. Most teenagers receive his or her license around the age
of sixteen. As insurance rates continue to increase due to insurance
fraud, less teenagers are getting their license immediately after
having their permit.
The average American household pays around one thousand thirty dollars
per year due to insurance fraud in South Carolina. This money should
be spent on items that will benefit South Carolina. Auto, home and
business insurance fraud cost Americans more than eighty-five billion
dollars a year. Insurance fraud would be known as a top fortune
five hundred company if it was a business.
The simplest type of fraud is misrepresenting facts on an application,
and the most serious type of fraud is submitting claims for injuries
that never happened. Seven of the most common types of insurance
fraud are under-reporting, failing to report, faking or exaggerating
injuries, falsifying or overstating injuries, staging automobile
accidents, fabricating relationships, and exaggerating the value
of items stolen.
South Carolina’s biggest ally in the fight against insurance
fraud is Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina. Blue Cross works
with the federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to prosecute
fraud cases. Examples of health insurance fraud by customers are
letting someone else who does not have healthcare coverage use their
cards, filing false claims or changing dates of service. People
think insurance companies and businesses do not commit insurance
fraud, but they do. Some examples of healthcare fraud committed
by doctors and healthcare professionals are billing for more expensive
services the patient never received, filing claims for unnecessary
procedures, and filing a claim for a more expensive procedure than
the one actually given. Doctors and healthcare professionals are
more likely to commit fraud against older people because they are
mere naïve.
Officials hope increasing the awareness of insurance fraud will
encourage consumers to use the South Carolina Insurance Fraud Hotline
to report cases to the Attorney General’s Insurance Fraud
Division. The law states, if you suspect someone has committed insurance
fraud you are obligated to report the crime. You are not obligated
to reveal your identity when reporting a crime.
Insurance fraud is a serious felony. The penalties for insurance
fraud has increased over the years, and it continues to increase.
Insurance frauders deprive citizens of their rights. It is very
important for South Carolina to reduce its acts of insurance fraud.
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essay titles.
Insurance Fraud: Crimes &
Cover-ups
by Shannon Smoak
Branchville High School
Insurance fraud is hurting South Carolina citizens
everyday. Average American households pay an average of $1000 as
a result of insurance fraud. Misrepresenting facts or over exaggerating
the truth on insurance forms can lead to fraud and cause big problems
– along with charges.
Over 600 cases of insurance fraud are reported each year in South
Carolina. Since May of 1995, when the South Carolina Attorney General’s
Insurance Fraud began prosecuting insurance fraud cases, over $4
million has been collected. The average South Carolina pays of $1000
a year. The increase in insurance premiums, cost of goods and services,
and taxes are a result of insurance fraud.
One in every four people thinks that it is all ri8ght to exaggerate
a false insurance claim. Faking injuries, lying on health insurance
applications and fraudulent stolen items are all examples of insurance
fraud. To fake health injuries someone may hit their friend with
a board or brick to make them look like they have serious injuries.
After having serious diseases or illnesses, a person may lie about
their past health status. People will even take the risk of taking
their own car and driving it off somewhere to burn it. Later, they
would claim it stolen.
In 2003, Governor Mark Sanford declared September 22-26 Insurance
Fraud Awareness Week in South Carolina. The Attorney General and
South Carolina Insurance News Service announced an initiative to
try and stop insurance fraud. They also wanted to inform the public
to make them aware of the results of insurance fraud, and they wanted
to increase public participation in acts to stop insurance fraud.
Insurance companies send out Special Investigative Units (SIU’s)
when they suspect a fraudulent insurance claim. Those who commit
insurance fraud are stealing from the citizens of South Carolina.
They are cheating consumers, the state, and the insurance industry
out of millions of dollars.
Ten percent of all auto, home, and business insurance claims are
fraudulent. People make up stories and false claims just to get
their greedy little hands on money. Money isn’t everything,
and lying to get it just isn’t worth it.
There have been many outrageous stores and tales of insurance fraud.
One man hit his friend with a board to fake injuries from a staged
motorcycle accident. Another man claimed that his car just all of
a sudden burst into flames. A woman from Anderson County claimed
that her husband was dead. Later, she even faked her own death.
Afterwards, her husband and she were both discovered alive and health.
A man claimed that over $100,000.00 worth of satellite dishes were
stolen from his backyard. Upon investigation, the only think that
was in his backyard was a lawnmower.
Many hotlines have been started to help those who have committed
insurance fraud and those who know of someone who has done such
a thing. “In 1997, the Insurance Fraud Division of the South
Carolina Attorney General’s office, in conjunction with Professional
Insurance Agents of South Carolina and the South Carolina Insurance
News Service, started an Insurance Fraud Hotline for reporting insurance
fraud. “We need the help of the general public to fight fraud
in our state,” said Allison Dean Wright, Executive Director,
South Carolina Insurance News Service. “We all pay for insurance
fraud. It’s time to fight back by reporting it.”
Remember: Insurance fraud is a CRIME!
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essay titles.
“Dial ‘F’
for Fraud”
by Kimberly Ott
Branchville High School
A man sets his car on fire. Another burns his family
home on Christmas Day. A woman repeatedly claims to be dead. One
man goes as far as to have his friend hit him with a board. Why
have these people committed these seemingly senseless acts? They
wanted to collect on their insurance policies.
These incidents, while certainly extreme are just a sample of the
many cases of insurance fraud. The crimes occurred within four years
of each other in our own beloved state of smiling faces and beautiful
places, South Carolina. The absurdity of the above examples earned
them a spot on “South Carolina Top Ten Most Outrageous Cases
of Insurance Fraud: for the years 1999-2003, along with a dishonest
chiropractor and a nursing home scam. But insurance fraud need not
be so outrageous. An act as simple as misrepresenting facts on an
insurance application qualifies as insurance fraud.
Insurance fraud, simply put, is reporting inaccurate information
to insurance companies in order to collect money. Some common types
of insurance fraud include: reporting inaccurate medical information,
exaggerating the value of stolen objects faking injuries, and staging
accidents. No longer the rarity it once was, insurance fraud today
is as common-place as a walk in the park and almost as acceptable.
According to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office,
“One in every 3 Americans believes it is ‘all right’
to pad claims to make up for premiums paid in previous years when
they had no claims.” The office also states that at least
ten percent of insurance claims are fraudulent or highly inflated.
It is falsely believed that no one pays a price for information
fraud. In reality, the American people pay.
The average American household ends up paying $1,030 more each year
as a result of insurance fraud. Citizens must pay more money for
health, auto, and homeowner’s insurance to make up for the
money insurance companies get cheated out of. Americans paid $96
billion dollars for insurance fraud in 1999. Add in the consequential
higher costs of goods and services, and that sum could jump up as
much as $530 billion dollars higher. Fraudulence is rampant throughout
the United States, and South Carolina is no exception.
Fraudulence is committed by people of all backgrounds, and people
of all backgrounds are affected. Those guilty of committing fraudulent
acts have essentially stolen from the insurance companies as well
as the general public. South Carolinians are eating the cost of
that stolen money. They are having to compensate for their fellow
citizen’s lies. Many feel helpless and at the expense of the
dishonest. But residents can do something about insurance fraud.
The phone number for the South Carolina Insurance Fraud Hotline
is 1-888-95-FRAUD. The hotline is open at all hours, and callers
do not have to reveal their identities. Depending on the circumstances,
those charged guilty of insurance fraud can serve up to five years
in a state prison as well as pay fines as high as $50,000. Reporting
insurance fraud can help stop the most costly white collar crime
in America. If we work together to end insurance scams, fraudulence
may one day become a crime of the past.
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essay titles.
South Carolina – Fraud
Free
by Jessica Harvey
York Junior High School
The Fortune 500 is one of the most esteemed list in
the United States, displaying the 500 most successful companies
in the nation. Companies on this list rake in billions o9f dollars
every year. In 2002, the top companies on this list were Wal*Mart,
Exxon-Mobil, General Motors and insurance fraud? As absurd as it
sounds, if insurance fraud was to become a company, it would not
only make the Fortune 500 list, but it would land among the top
fifteen.
The peculiar thing is people who commit insurance fraud, now considered
a felony by most states, think they are somehow gaining money by
not having to pay it, but the truth is, an average American household
pays approximately $1,300 due to insurance fraud annually. Are “frauders”
truly gaining?
With 85 billion dollars, the amount of money insurance fraud costs
America as a whole every year, new schools, which are in dire need
across our country, could be built. At the beginning of the school
year, a new high school was inquired about in my town. Since the
blueprints were so expensive, inhabitants of York had to vote on
the school with only a vague idea of what it might look like. This
turned the citizens against the idea, so that meant no new school.
The citizens in my town have also had to see orange cones with the
label, “Pennies for Progress” all over our roads for
about a year now. Obviously there hasn’t been enough pennies
because we have certainly seen no progress.
Why should the people of my town have to pay for our new roads and
schools? Why isn’t the government helping? Maybe they aren’t
helping because they are so worried about the money our nation is
losing in insurance fraud.
When we look at all of the opportunities this money could have been
spent on, it may make us wonder why we haven’t put a stop
to this simple problem earlier. The trouble is, this problem isn’t
simple at all. Insurance fraud is an extremely broad category. Deceptions
dealing with your auto policy all the way to faking a serious accident
are classified under insurance fraud.
It may also be getting harder to stop people from committing this
felony because Americans are becoming more tolerant of this unlawful
activity. Several surveys have been conducted only to find that
somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of Americans consider it acceptable
to swindle on insurance claims.
As disturbing as this figure sounds, there is another aspect that
is more alarming. This factor is the actual false claims South Carolinians
have tried to get away with. In one case, a woman claiming she was
dead was almost given $400,000. There have also been several cases
in South Carolina in which people take advantage of elderly people
in order to receive insurance money.
Through this paper I have learned a lot, but there is still one
question I have. How did South Carolina turn into an area in which
people lie to, steal from, and take advantage of others? This question
may never be answered, but there is one thing I am sure of. As long
as companies such as the S.C. Attorney General’s Office, the
Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, the National Insurance Crime
Bureau, and the S.C. Insurance Fraud Investigators continue to work
on educating students such as myself, and punishing this transgression,
I am convinced that South Carolina will one day return to being
fraud free.
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