When committing insurance fraud, a person may not realize exactly what he or she is doing. Instead, he or she doesn’t think it’s a huge deal because nobody is being physically harmed as a result.
However, an insurance fraud charge is a very big deal. In fact, depending on the circumstances, a person convicted of this crime could face many years of prison time.
There are two basic types of insurance fraud: hard fraud and soft fraud.
With hard fraud, an individual deliberately fakes an accident, injury or some other circumstance that allows him or her to illegally collect money from an insurance company.
Soft fraud, on the other hand, is not as serious. Even so, this entails telling lies as a means of maximizing the value of a claim. It may not be as serious as hard fraud, but that doesn’t mean it’s not classified as a crime.
Some common forms of insurance fraud include false disability claims, false slip-and-fall claims, inflated billing by a medical professional and stealing another person’s identity as a means of obtaining health care benefits.
Since there are so many questions about insurance fraud, including exactly what it entails, it can be difficult to determine how you will be treated as your case moves forward.
If you’re charged with any type of insurance fraud, regardless of the circumstances, you don’t want to wait around to learn more about your case. Instead, focus on the actual charges, potential punishment and the defense strategy you can use. All of these things will help you feel better about the future.
Source: FindLaw, “Insurance Fraud,” accessed Jan. 31, 2017
