As you have read, insurance fraud is considered one of the most pervasive examples of avocational crime. Avocational crime may or may not be considered white collar crime depending on how you view it but for our purposes, we will consider avocational crime and in particular, insurance fraud to be white collar crime.
Some consider it NOT to be white collar in nature because it does not have an occupational component meaning that the perpetrator is not an employee or acting on behalf of a corporation or other entity.
However, because the perpetrators involved in insurance fraud normally have good social standing and well respected occupations, there is enough of a nexus to link this type of crime to other, more recognized forms of white collar crime.
In this exercise, you will be given 5 types of insurance fraud and a short definition of each. I would like for you to rank them according to degree of severity.
In other words, start with the crime you think is the worst and work your way down to the crime you think is the least egregious.
Please briefly explain why you have chosen to put them in the order you have.
Insurance Fraud Project
1) Rate Evasion - This involves telling an insurer that vehicle is actually garaged/kept in one location (usually one with lower rates) as opposed to the actual location which normally has much higher insurance rates in order to save money on insurance premiums.
2) Falsifying medical treatment / billing fraud - submission of false medical bills for payment by an insurer. This is usually done by a medical provider but could also be done by an attorney or the claimant/insured.
3) Inflating damages - the act of claiming to an insurer that the value of certain items that may have been damaged or stolen was higher than it actually is in order to recover more money than the items were worth.
4) Falsifying information on an application - Intentionally withholding information or claiming certain facts that are untrue in order to get a better rate on insurance premium or perhaps simply to be accepted for coverage.
5) Exaggerating injuries - Claiming injuries to an insurer that were not suffered from the accident in question or claiming that the injuries suffered were more severe than they actually were in order to receive more money on a personal injury claim.