Thank you to the Hillsborough Sheriff’s department for telling the public what automobile insurers know: Staged accidents are a huge source of insurance fraud.
Undercover agents broke up a ring of at least 55 people on April 21, 2010, with arrests relating to staged accidents, insurance fraud and racketeering. Based on what we have heard about widespread fraud in the Tampa Bay area, more investigations and arrests are needed.
Personal Injury Protection (PIP) fraud is a huge problem, not just in Tampa Bay, but across the state. Drivers pay hundreds of dollars more in insurance premiums to cover medical claims that either overstated or outright fraudulent. State legislators need to take action to protect drivers, the courts and insurers from fraudulent PIP claims and baseless lawsuits. There should be funding for investigations that uncover phony medical clinics, recruiters for faked auto accidents, and the attorneys who file unfounded lawsuits on behalf of the clinics.
In announcing the arrests, the Sheriff’s office gave the media an inside look at how these rings operate, complete with a video of a staged accident. Here is a summary from the Tampa Bay Tribune’s article:
“Deputies released the video, showing an SUV and a car pulling into a parking lot at night. The SUV parks; the car stops behind it. The driver gets out of the SUV and walks to the driver’s side of the car.
After a short conversation, the driver returns to the SUV. The car then positions itself and the SUV drives away. Three people get out of the car. The car parks and the driver turns off the headlights and gets out.
Almost immediately, the SUV drives toward the car at a high speed, and strikes it on the driver’s side. The SUV drives away and the four people get back in the car.”
The arrests follow another crackdown by federal, state and local authorities that involved a Tampa Bay treatment clinic. Our company and every other auto insurer in Florida can document that almost identical criminal activity takes place across the state. It’s time to stamp out PIP fraud with more arrests and fewer economic incentives to try to rip off Florida insurers.
Tags: auto insurance, auto insurance United Automobile Insurance Company, Division of Insurance Fraud, fake accident, fraudulent PIP claim, PIP fraud, Tampa Bay
[...] of these type of accidents, and of the claims filed by medical service providers. As we previously reported, people will recruit insured drivers to fake accidents so that bogus Personal Injury Protection [...]