View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2010/08/04/112163.htm

Pennsylvania Sees Increase in Insurance Fraud

Pennsylvania saw a 22 percent increase in fraud complaints in the first half of the year, in a continuation of a trend that started two years ago, according to the Pennsylvania Insurance Fraud Prevention Authority (IFPA).

The IFPA said it received 770 referrals of suspected insurance fraud and insurance-related crimes in the second quarter, compared to 686 in the second quarter of 2009. The first half of 2010 received 1,637 referrals, compared to 1,342 in the first half of 2009.

Auto insurance remained the most common complaint, with about 45 percent of the total. Workers’ compensation insurance fraud complaints represented about 14 percent, homeowners insurance 11 percent and health insurance 8 percent.

Authorities made 95 arrests for insurance fraud and related crimes in the second quarter; about three out of four arrests were related to auto insurance fraud in

The data for auto insurance fraud arrests show four main crimes:

• Falsely claiming injury from a motor vehicle accident (28 percent of arrests)
• Driving without insurance or driving without adequate coverage, having an accident, purchasing insurance or adding coverage and then falsely claiming that the accident happened after the policy was purchased or coverage added (18 percent)
• Falsely claiming the theft of a motor vehicle (16 percent)
• Non-resident rate evasion (8 percent of arrests)

In the first six months of the year, law enforcement agencies reported a total of 246 prosecutions closed, with 76 individuals granted Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) of their charges.

There were 168 individuals placed on probation and 26 sentenced to prison.

Source: IFPA