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Fraud and Scams terms
Staged crashes, fake policies and the cost of cheating.
Garaging addressThe address where a car is mainly parked overnight, which insurers use to price a policy and which must be reported accurately.Hard fraudDeliberately staging or inventing a loss, such as a fake crash, arson or false theft report, in order to collect insurance money.Insurance fraudDeceiving an insurer, or a policyholder, for financial gain, from staged crashes and padded claims to fake policies and lies on applications.Soft fraudOpportunistic insurance fraud by otherwise honest people, such as padding a real claim or giving false details to lower a premium.Staged accidentA crash deliberately caused or faked to file fraudulent insurance claims, often by organized rings of drivers, passengers and complicit providers.Swoop and squatA staged-crash scheme in which one car swerves in front of a victim and a second car brakes hard, causing a rear-end collision.Ghost brokingA scam in which someone poses as an insurance agent and sells fake, altered or fraudulently obtained policies, often at too-good-to-be-true prices.National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB)A nonprofit funded by member insurers that investigates insurance fraud and vehicle theft, works with police and runs the free VINCheck lookup.Special investigations unit (SIU)The team inside an insurance company that investigates suspected fraud in claims and applications and refers cases to authorities.Vehicle history reportA record compiled from a vehicle identification number showing a used car's title brands, reported accidents, odometer readings and ownership history.Vehicle identification number (VIN)The unique 17-character code assigned to every modern car, used by insurers, motor vehicle agencies and history reports to identify the exact vehicle.