California residents take out life insurance in order to make sure that their loved ones are taken care of financially after they’ve passed away. As long as policyholders pay their insurance premiums as directed, their beneficiaries will receive a lump-sum payment upon their death.
When working with an insurance agent, you want to make sure that person is someone whom you can truly trust. Unfortunately, many people don’t find out that their insurance agents are unscrupulous until it is too late. An insurance agent who commits insurance fraud can make it impossible for an insured person or his or her beneficiaries to collect on a claim.
There are several different ways that an insurance agent could commit insurance fraud. Some of those include the following.
Lapping
This is when an insurance agent steals premiums and alters customers’ accounts to hide cash that he or she has stolen. This individual then hides the fraud by creating a fake customer account with another customer’s premium.
Forgery
This type of white-collar offense involves an insurance agent faking a policyholder’s signature in order to steal the cash value of the premiums associated with the insurance policy.
Fake policies
A fake policy can be created in several different ways, but one of the most deceptive methods, one that hurts policyholders, is when an insurance agent sells policies to customers and then neglects to file those policies with any carriers. Since customers often don’t file claims on policies because they are afraid their premiums will rise, the agents end up keeping all the documentation on the policies and skimming the customers’ payments.
Securing insurance is one of the most important tasks someone can do to ensure that his or her loved ones are taken care of. If you suspect insurance fraud on the part of an insurance agent, you may get the help you need by working with a law firm that specializes in white-collar crimes.
