What You Need To Know About Car Insurance and Fraud

October 27th, 2014  |  Auto Insurance

There is no doubt that insurance fraud is one of the leading reasons why we have high insurance rates in the province of Ontario. While some make the assumption that insurance fraud is a victimless crime, it actually impacts every insured driver in the province. Every driver is a victim of insurance fraud whether you are directly impacted or not. This is why it’s so important for everyone to work together to help combat car insurance fraud.

“Auto insurance fraud leads to more than just higher premiums - it makes the roads more dangerous. Premeditated fraud can have further costs, such as injuries suffered by innocent drivers and passengers as a result of staged collisions.” Jim Bradley - Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services.

Main Types of Auto Insurance Fraud

While auto insurance fraud can take on many different forms, it general falls into two main categories:

1. Opportunistic fraud: This is the padding of legitimate claims. For example, people filing a claim about their vehicle being broken into and exaggerating about how much was actually taken.
2. Premeditated fraud: These are activities that are preplanned with the intention of committing fraud. Acts such as staging a collision with another driver or a health care provider billings for services not provided are two of the most common forms of this type of car insurance fraud.

Insurance industry reports estimate fraud to be nearly a billion dollar business in Ontario

Tips to Protect Yourself from Insurance Fraud

There are a number of things that you can do to protect yourself from auto insurance fraud in Ontario. Protect yourself by:

1. Educate yourself about the signs of auto insurance fraud
2. Installing a dash cam in your car to protect yourself against staged accidents
3. Always double check your claim forms to ensure all information submitted is accurate or you could unintentionally commit insurance fraud
4. Never sign blank insurance  claims forms
5. Keep records of everything
6. Take photos and record everything at the scene of an accident if you are involved in a crash
7. Watch out for tow truck scams and shady tactics
8. If you suspect you may be a victim, call the police immediately and report it

Have you ever been a victim of insurance fraud? Do you actively take measures to protect yourself against car insurance fraud? If so, what are they?

Learn More About Car Insurance Fraud

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Ontario Anti-Fraud Task Force Recommends Extensive Changes