Fighting Insurance Fraud Is Not ‘Gotcha!’

am not in favor of the same person authoring two blogs in a row. All Coalition members are invited to participate in ‘FraudBlog’ to share their views, insights and opinions. My attendance at a recent major insurance conference banquet though caused me to violate my own rule.

As we try to return to the ‘new normal’ from the pandemic, I was truly excited to be in a beautiful ballroom filled with hundreds of insurance professionals gathered to recognize excellence for the evening’s awards banquet. The culmination each year is the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement award.

This conference addresses insurance overall including, but in no way limited to insurance fraud. No doubt their key honoree’s career warranted the recognition bestowed. But a comment he made overshadowed the evening for me and has caused me to share these observations with you.

While retelling highlights from his career handling insurance claims, the honoree proudly told the audience of a claim where a business executive staying in a hotel invited a woman to his room. The next morning, both she and his $100,000 watch were gone.

There was no mention in the story of any fraud, nor that the event did not occur or that the watch was a fake or its value inflated. While the policyholder’s morals may be lacking, the policy clearly provided coverage.