Biggest Car Insurance Frauds Ever Caught

You think that you’re such a rebel because you smudged a bit of ink on your car insurance claim. Insurance fraud of any caliber is risky business, but you’ve got nothing on the biggest car insurance frauds ever caught. Of course, it makes one wonder about the frauds that didn’t get caught.
In April, a whole slew of people went to jail in Philadelphia for committing car insurance fraud. The story sounds like the beginning of a really bad joke: a cop, a lawyer, seven damage appraisers, and the owner of an auto body shop walk into a bar…
Well, they may or may not have met in a bar, but they certainly will have plenty of time to get to know each other in prison. The whole group was charged with an ongoing auto insurance scam that lasted for four years. According to prosecutors in the case, the group earned millions of dollars by ripping off insurance companies.

How does one make millions in the car insurance game? These guys found plenty of ways. The two most prevalent methods involved reporting more damage than had occurred during an accident. They would then file the claim and collect more money than they needed to fix the car. When in doubt, though, you can just beat on the car and cause extra damage. Then you file a trumped-up claim and reap the rewards.
If you’re a personal injury lawyer, then you can live up to your profession’s stereotyped reputation by sending people over to the shady auto repair shop, where they will charge the insurance company higher rates and give you a 20% kick back.
This gang of miscreants was pretty good at the scheme, too. It took Philadelphia investigators over a year to gather enough information to charge them with insurance fraud.