Insurance fraud is a major issue all around the world and it shows no sign of slowing down or dying off. It is not helped by the fact that the dour economy of today makes people desperate to bring in some extra cash for themselves and that the people who are doing it are extremely creative at it nowadays. The common types of fraudulent claims include claiming you lost an expensive gem or other precious item and asking for the insurance for it. Nowadays there are even scams were a motorist ahead of you slams the brakes all of a sudden hoping that you would crash into him after which he can claim insurance or even fake an injury. Such tactics cost their countries billions and billions of dollars yearly and is a major issue. But while fraudulent claims are rampant now, it does not mean that the insurance companies are just sweeping it under the rug. Due to the huge losses companies incur on a daily basis, they have come up with method to spot a fake claim.

One of the first things they do is to examine a person’s claim history. If the individual claiming insurance has a lot of claims these stand out as flashing lights to the insurance company. This is mainly used in home insurance companies and vehicle insurance companies. The insurance firms keep dated records of the insurance claims a certain person claims and also analyze the frequency and what type of claim has occurred in the past. By using this data, insurance companies can also get a rough idea of when your next claim is going to be and if the claim you have applied for is not like the usual claim, then they will tend to take a deeper look. There also certain techniques that insurance fraud investigators are trained to excel at. One of such methods is to analyze the body language of the claimant.

One indicator that rings alarm bells is if the claimant is calm and composed after making a huge claim. Another is when certain individuals upgrade their insurance package shortly before they make a hug claim. In case of any accidents that they feel is suspicious, the factual investigation goes undercover to question eyewitnesses or examine the crash site to get a better idea of the accident.

In some vehicle crashes, the owner of the vehicle forms a coalition with the garage owner to jack up the prices of the parts and cheat the company. For this purpose insurance companies make use of advanced computer systems that can detect if any of the prices included are higher than the normal prices.