For years, fraudsters have been staging auto accidents, giving way to elaborate organized crime rings and singular scams designed to siphon dollars from insurers. Now others are orchestrating fire- and water-related damages in properties with the same intent: to defraud p&c insurers.
The growing incidence of these scams has led to the formation of multi-agency undercover operations, including “Operation Flames and Floods,” under which Florida authorities recently arrested 14 individuals.
Under Operation Flames and Floods, which began in November 2012, the Florida Fire Marshal’s Office and the Miami-Dade police department’s arson unit jointly investigated a series of suspicious fires. They later exposed an extensive scheme executed by multiple parties to defraud insurers by staging fire and water damage claims to residential homes in Miami-Dade County, Lehigh Acres and Naples, Florida. Fires were set to 13 homes, and five other residences incurred extensive water damage.
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