Latest Fraud Headlines

All the headlines from our Fraud Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Insurers’ Own Infrastructure Could Be Next Targets of Cyber Criminals

Jul 19 2021 // As “the next digital pandemic,” cyber risks are increasingly becoming a problem for insurers themselves, according to an industry expert. With “a lack of controls at [an] insurer, [you] could have...

California Drivers Charged After Text Messages Detail Alleged Fraud Scheme

Jul 19 2021 // Maricela Pantjoa Vidrio, 31, of Fairfield, Calif., and Areshma Kiran, 35, of Sacramento, Calif., were charged on multiple felony counts of insurance fraud after allegedly conspiring to misrepresent the facts following an...

17 More Arraigned in $822K California Auto Insurance Fraud Ring

Jul 16 2021 // Another 17 defendants were arraigned for their alleged involvement in an organized auto insurance fraud ring in California in which dealers reportedly purchased damaged vehicles and then filed inflated claims and even...

New York Man Arrested for Insurance Fraud Following Criminal Investigation

Jul 16 2021 // A New York man has been arrested for insurance fraud in the second degree following a year-long criminal investigation. On January 28, 2020, the Ellenville Fire Department requested the Ulster County Fire Investigation...

7 Indicted in Ohio for Alleged Insurance Fraud, Criminal Enterprise

Jul 15 2021 // A grand jury in Ohio’s Mahoning County on July 6 indicted seven people accused of taking part in a criminal enterprise that burned buildings and faked burglaries to fraudulently collect more than a million dollars...

Texas Medical Equipment Company Owners Convicted of $27M Fraud

Jul 13 2021 // The Dallas-area owners and operators of two durable medical equipment companies have been convicted on insurance fraud and money laundering charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas...

South Carolina Shifts Insurance Fraud Investigations to Insurance Department

Jul 12 2021 // South Carolina is transferring its insurance fraud investigations from the attorney general to the insurance regulator. Ray Farmer, director of the South Carolina Department of Insurance (SCDOI), said he has entered into...

Suspended Georgia Insurance Commissioner To Go On Trial In Theft Case

Jul 12 2021 // Georgia Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck will go trial this week on charges that he swindled his former employer out of $2 million to pay personal bills and pump money into his 2018 campaign. The Atlanta...

Massachusetts Man Sentenced to Prison for Workers’ Compensation Fraud Scheme

Jul 9 2021 // A Massachusetts man has been sentenced to prison for a fraud scheme to evade payroll taxes and workers’ compensation requirements in the construction industry. U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard has sentenced...

Does It Ever Make Sense for Firms to Pay Ransomware Criminals?

Jul 8 2021 // The global insurance company AXA announced in May it will stop writing cyber insurance coverage in France that reimburses customers for making payments to ransomware criminals. Cyber insurance policies have long covered...

California Drivers Charged After Text Messages Detail Alleged Fraud Scheme

Jul 8 2021 // Maricela Pantjoa Vidrio, 31, of Fairfield, Calif., and Areshma Kiran, 35, of Sacramento, Calif., were charged on multiple felony counts of insurance fraud after allegedly conspiring to misrepresent the facts following an...

Cyber Insurance Industry in Crosshairs of Ransomware Criminals

Jul 7 2021 // In the past few weeks, ransomware criminals claimed as trophies at least three North American insurance brokerages that offer policies to help others survive the very network-paralyzing, data-pilfering extortion attacks...

Like ‘Terminator,’ High-Tech Cyber Crime to ‘Keep Coming’

Jul 5 2021 // Businesses worldwide are fighting sophisticated data scientists as they battle to protect their data-rich computers from cyber crime – and the costly attacks are not going to stop, an expert at insurer Sompo Holdings...

The Cybercrime Challenge for Agents

Jul 5 2021 // Ransomware is all over the news of late — Colonial Pipeline, CNA and JBS plus hospitals, municipalities and many other businesses. If only reading the headlines, you might conclude that ransomware affects primarily...

Insurers’ Own Infrastructure Could Be Next Targets of Cyber Criminals

Jul 2 2021 // As “the next digital pandemic,” cyber risks are increasingly becoming a problem for insurers themselves, according to an industry expert. With “a lack of controls at [an] insurer, [you] could have...

New Hampshire Insurance Department Investigates 18 Insurance Fraud Cases

Jul 2 2021 // The New Hampshire Insurance Department has announced that it investigated and submitted for criminal prosecution a total of 18 insurance fraud cases over the past twelve months. The cases varied in nature, but included...

California Advances Decriminalizing Psychedelic Substances

Jul 1 2021 // California this week moved another step closer to decriminalizing psychedelics – amid a debate over whether their prohibition is an outdated remnant of the War on Drugs – after the author removed a substance from the...

Indictment Says Tech Firm Official Stole Money, Ran Fraud Scheme

Jun 25 2021 // The chief operating officer of a Philadelphia-based technology startup company orchestrated a long-running securities offering fraud while simultaneously embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the firm, according...

Massachusetts Repair Shop Owner Pleads Guilty to Insurance Fraud Charges

Jun 25 2021 // A man who used sledgehammers and mallets to further damage customers’ vehicles at the two auto body shops he owned in an effort to cheat insurance companies has pleaded guilty to dozens of charges, prosecutors...

Massachusetts Man Charged with Identity Theft in Attempt to Buy Luxury Car

Jun 24 2021 // A Massachusetts man is suspected of stealing the identities of two people in an attempt to buy an $83,000 car, federal prosecutors said. Brandon Brouillard, 27, of Worcester, was indicted last week on bank fraud and...