Our fight against fraud has improved, but the scope of the problem can only be described as enormous. The FBI reports that one in four claims has an element of fraud. Some of us can argue it is much higher. We have successfully formed fraud-fighting special investigation units (SIUs) that have had spectacular individual success. This is a result of talented and aggressive SIU investigators and claims personnel.

But the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud (CAIF) politely cites the foundation of the problem on its Web site: “Measuring insurance fraud is an elusive target. No single national agency gathers omnibus fraud statistics. Insurance fraud data thus are relatively piecemeal, making our understanding of insurance fraud an ongoing work in progress…”

The depth of the problem is highlighted by data provided by The New York State Insurance Frauds Bureau reflecting investigations resulted in 522 arrests for the first three quarters of 2011, compared with 482 for the corresponding period in 2010 and 490 in 2009. They received 17,811 reports of suspected fraud during the first three quarters of 2011, down from 18,504 received in the January-September 2010 period. Considering their limited allocated resources they have done a remarkable job. The statistics, however, reveal the size of the problem and economic loss we, and therefore the general public, suffers. We have to remember, it is likely that most fraud cases remain undetected.