In what may become an annual rite, Florida's Department of Financial Services Division of Insurance Fraud (DIF) conducted a statewide, three-day fraud sweep in late January. The operation, which stretched from Pensacola to Miami, drew upon staff at the various regional offices of the DIF and involved months-long investigations with millions of dollars in potential losses. Of the 84 individuals targeted for suspicion of various forms of insurance fraud, including health, life, auto, property and workers' compensation insurance, the teams succeeded in bringing charges against 62 of them. Twenty-one of these suspects were charged with workers' compensation insurance fraud.

"Insurance fraud causes real financial pain and hurts Florida's families, businesses, and communities," said Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who oversees the state Department of Financial Services and initiated the January sweeps last year. "Criminals need to know that we will not tolerate insurance fraud of any kind and we will aggressively pursue those who commit fraud against innocent Floridians."

The sweep is an unabashed effort to draw attention to the problem. "The idea is that many of these cases would not draw attention singularly, but all together, they do," said FLDFS Spokesperson Nina Banister. "In this three-day sweep, we compiled one-tenth of our average annual arrest numbers for fraud." The DIF made more than 800 insurance fraud-related arrests in the last fiscal year.