Latest Fraud Headlines
All the headlines from our Fraud Topic Page, ordered by recency.
FBI Reports Crime Declined in 2008
Sep 14 2009 // According to the FBI, the estimated number of violent crimes in the nation declined for the second year in a row. Motor vehicle theft crimes also declined in 2008. FBI statistics show that the estimated volume of violent...
Ohio Regulators, Nationwide Insurance Warn of Mail Fraud Scheme
Sep 14 2009 // The Ohio Department of Insurance and Nationwide Insurance have issued a warning regarding an international mail fraud scheme that uses the Nationwide name. Consumers in as many as 10 states have reportedly received...
Two Californians Nabbed for Auto Insurance Fraud
Sep 14 2009 // Two residents of San Jose, Calif., have been arrested on automobile insurance fraud charges, after one of them attempted to buy insurance immediately after an accident. “Insurance fraud perpetrators drive up the cost...
Alleged $1.2M in Workers’ Comp Fraud Leads to Arrest in Louisiana
Sep 11 2009 // The Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) and the state’s attorney general reported the arrest of a Louisiana couple for alleged workers’ compensation premium fraud. Mauro and Keren Aguirre, owners of Escapade...
P/C Insurers Report Surge in Suspicious Claims
Sep 9 2009 // Property/casualty insurance companies report that the number of claims suspected of possible fraud has jumped 13 percent for the first half of this year compared to last year’s first six months. A review of...
Florida Agents Say Home Mitigation Effort Is Riddled with Fraud, Inefficiencies and Errors
Sep 7 2009 // Florida’s efforts to encourage homeowners to harden their homes to better withstand big storms by giving them insurance premium discounts is not getting the job done, according to a report from insurance agents in...
Bar Association Seeks Exemption for Lawyers from Identity Theft Rule
Aug 31 2009 // The American Bar Association is seeking to bar the Federal Trade Commission from applying its Red Flags Rule, designed to prevent identity theft, to practicing lawyers. An ABA suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the...
New Hampshire Man Convicted of Insurance Fraud
Aug 28 2009 // A Strafford, New Hampshire, man has been convicted of staging a burglary at his home in order to collect insurance money. The attorney general’s office says 28-year-old Bradford Sargent reported the burglary to...
Former Oklahoma Insurance Agent Arrested, Faces Felony Charges
Aug 27 2009 // Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland announced former insurance agent Richard Wallen has been arrested by the Oklahoma Insurance Department’s Anti-Fraud Unit. Wallen has been charged with two felony...
California Sees Rise in Car Insurance Fraud Tied to Economy
Aug 27 2009 // California Department of Insurance commissioner Steve Poizner today announced in Los Angeles that recently compiled statistics show that financially desperate residents and scam artists may be committing more automobile...
Former Oklahoma Agent Sold Insurance Without a License, AG Says
Aug 25 2009 // A former Vinita, Okla., insurance agent will pay more than $4,400 in restitution after pleading guilty to selling insurance without a license, Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson reported. William Ronald Harlan,...
Huge Hacking Case Highlights Companies’ Vulnerability to Breaches
Aug 24 2009 // Consumers and companies are vulnerable to hackers and identity thieves even after U.S. authorities arrested a man they said was a master hacker who stole 170 million credit and debit card numbers. Estimates on the total...
Texas Mutual Announces $200K Verdict in Premium Fraud Case
Aug 21 2009 // Texas Mutual Insurance Company reported that Erection Professionals Inc. in Pleasanton has pleaded guilty to workers’ compensation fraud-related charges. A Travis County district court ordered the company to repay...
Californian Held in State Workers’ Compensation Fund $1.4 Million Fraud
Aug 20 2009 // The California Department of Insurance has announced that Joseph Baiden, 56, of Diamond Bar, surrendered yesterday morning to the Los Angeles Superior Court pursuant to an arrest warrant issued for eight counts of...
‘Top Cop’ SEC Newly Aggressive in Attack on Wall Street Fraud
Aug 18 2009 // Wall Street’s top cop has a lot to prove and it’s been taking no prisoners. After enduring a thorough thrashing for its supervision of the now-defunct Bear Stearns and missing Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion...
Former PIANY Prez Dickson Named to Fraud Task Force
Aug 18 2009 // David Dickson has been appointed to the New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board’s (NYCIRB) Fraud Task Force. Dickson has served on the NYCIRB since last year, and originally was named to the committee as the...
Hacker Indicted in Huge ID Theft: 130 Million Credit Cards
Aug 17 2009 // Federal officials announced the indictment of a Miami man in what they say is the largest identity theft ring ever exposed in the U.S. Albert Gonzales, 28, was indicted for conspiring to hack into computer networks...
Florida Insurance Agents Say State’s Home Mitigation Effort Is Failing
Aug 13 2009 // Florida’s efforts to encourage homeowners to harden their homes to better withstand big storms by giving them insurance premium discounts is not getting the job done, according to a report from insurance agents in...
Court: Insurer Must Pay Massachusetts for Bonded Thefts
Aug 13 2009 // The Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled an insurance company must pay the government for its remaining losses from a $9.4 million theft from the Treasury in the late 1990s. The theft remains the largest loss of state...
Korte Named Director of Fraud Investigation for Litigation Solutions
Aug 11 2009 // Jeff Korte has been named director of the Special Investigative Unit for Litigation Solutions. Korte will manage unit, which offers SIU Programming, State Compliance & Reporting and other services for property...
