Staged automobile accidents the highest insurance coverage fraud challenge in South Carolina

Staged automobile accidents are the highest insurance coverage fraud challenge within the state of South Carolina, in keeping with an evaluation launched by the Nationwide Insurance coverage Crime Bureau (NICB).

South Carolina ranks thirteenth within the US by way of questionable vehicle-related insurance coverage claims, in keeping with the NICB. That’s considerably increased than states with related populations like Alabama, Kentucky and Louisiana.

“Staged automobile accidents are one of the important fraud points dealing with South Carolina,” stated Eric De Campos, director of technique, coverage and authorities affairs for the NICB. “The affect on residents consists of each a monetary value and a security danger. Residents aren’t solely confronted with the prices of the injury executed to their automobiles, but in addition danger severe damage and attainable loss of life because of automobile accidents intentionally brought on by fraudsters.”

Scammers use numerous ways to commit staged-accident fraud, the NICB reported. For instance, they might use fraudulent data like inflated medical billing following a staged accident as a way to affect settlements from insurers throughout mediation.

Members of fraud rings, corresponding to passengers complicit in a staged accident, may additionally go to a number of well being clinics and obtain therapies for supposed soft-tissue accidents that may’t be verified by means of medical imaging. These fraudulent accidents and the ensuing medical companies are used to inflate the insurance coverage declare, the NICB stated.

The NICB performed a city-by-city evaluation of South Carolina’s questionable vehicle-related claims spanning from 2020 to 2022. The evaluation discovered that Columbia was town with the biggest variety of claims, accounting for 13% of the full. Columbia was adopted by Greenville (5%) and Florence (4%). A county-by county evaluation discovered that Richland County ranked above different counties for the variety of claims with almost 15% of the full. Richland was adopted by Charleston County and Greenville County, which every accounted for 7% of the full.

“As a way to fight this fraud, it’s important to offer the South Carolina Insurance coverage Fraud Division and state Division of Insurance coverage entry to the vital sources wanted to extra successfully deter fraudsters,” De Campos stated. “This may embrace elevating minimal felony penalties for insurance coverage fraud.”

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