Fraud is a roughly $80 billion a year enterprise depending on which figures you use. Regardless, the cost to insurers and the general insurance paying public is substantial.

In response to these enterprising fraudsters, insurers have launched special investigation units to handle the numerous cases of suspected fraud. I had the opportunity meet some of these investigators at the recent International Association of Special Investigation Units (IASIU) Seminar and Expo on Insurance Fraud and I have a message for all the fraudsters out there – you should be looking for a new line of work.

Walter Swett, the IASIU Seminar chairman, told me that their goal was to provide a broad line-up of training so members can stay up to date with the latest trends and techniques. “We want to make their lives easier.”

The education sessions taught investigators, many of whom are former military and law enforcement, what the latest scams are, what to look for, where to look for fraudsters, and how to conduct a thorough investigation. I spent a considerable amount of time in the exhibit hall and saw some of the new technology available to aid in the fraud fight.

If you have a habit of calling insurers and filing false claims, there is technology to track those calls that uses biometrics to create a voice print (like using a fingerprint) to identify callers. The technology isn't fooled by someone who changes their accent and the NICE Contact Center Fraud Prevention is creating a fraudster database of voice prints to assist insurers in tracking and identifying frequent offenders. Other technology helps investigators analyze their data and specifically supports law enforcement initiatives.

Social media users have probably left a road map for investigators, allowing them to connect the dots between you and your friends or associates without ever leaving their desks. The tools available to do internet searches extend way beyond a simple Google or Bing search.

One of my favorite sessions involved learning about staged car fires and the amount of information that can be gathered from a burned out vehicle. We spent an afternoon learning about the properties of fire, ignition sources, burn patterns, what to look for at a burn scene, what types of evidence can be found and the mistakes that fraudsters frequently make. While vehicles are one of the most difficult scenes to read, they can still provide more information than most people realize. Like a fire in a building, air velocity and direction and impact the direction in which the fire travels.

The next day, our class had the opportunity to inspect two vehicles that had been set on fire two days earlier to look for evidence, burn patterns and try to identify how and where the fires started. Then they set a vehicle on fire. It took approximately 8 minutes from the time the fire was lit to when it was put out by the fire department.

If you've never seen a structure or vehicle fire, you may not realize how quickly the fire can spread and how little time it takes for a space to become fully engulfed – literally minutes. That's why fire fighters always train people to get out of a burning building as quickly as possible.

You can see some photos of the cars and the burn on PropertyCasualty360.com and look for updates on some of the education sessions next week.

Special Reports /

Fraudsters beware: Here's how investigators are fighting fraud in 2014

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