The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) has released the findings of ten state-specific reports charting questionable claims (QC) referrals for the past 2 years. All of the results share a striking commonality: an uptick in suspicious claims activity.
When evaluating the QCs originating from Ohio, Texas, New York, New Jersey, California, Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Connecticut during 2009, 2010 and 2011, the NICB observed rising numbers across the board, with increases ranging from 4 percent in Texas to 49 percent in Michigan.
Although western states such as California and Washington have long been considered hot beds for auto theft, the Midwest accounted for a large portion of the total QCs, with Ohio and Illinois posting increases of 36 and 17 percent, respectively. The smattering of suspicious claims activity was also evident in other states, as Minnesota, New Jersey and California reported overall increases of 31, 26 and 19 percent respectively.
Member companies refer QCs to the NICB for closer review based on one or more indicators of possible fraud. A single claim may contain as many as seven referral reasons. Each state-specific report has been organized by loss city, core-based statistical area (CBSA), policy type, loss type, policy and loss type combined and referral reasons.
Problem Areas
Of the ten states surveyed, Michigan logged the highest increase in QCs, with 49 percent. Detroit, Mich. was the loss city that reported the most QCs in each of the 3 years. Between 2009 and 2010, QCs in Detroit increased 30 percent, only to decrease the following year by 13 percent (between 2010 and 2011).
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