The latest report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) shows that staged accident questionable claims (QC) increased 46 percent from 2007 through 2009. Additionally, the ratio of staged accident QCs to overall bodily injury (BI) and personal injury protection (PIP) claims has increased over this period while the total number of BI and PIP claims has declined.

The top five states that generated the most staged accident QCs were: (1) Florida, 3,006; (2) New York, 1,680; (3) California, 1,619; (4) Texas, 792; and (5) Illinois, 433.

The five cities that generated the most staged accident QCs were: (1) New York City, 1,304; (2) Tampa, 562; (3) Miami, 511; (4) Orlando, 422; and (5) Houston, 376.

You might be wondering what a fake accident is? It’s this: someone may intentionally hit you in order to create a situation where you can be sued. Even if you have insurance, ultimately it’s your insurance premiums that will go up. You don’t think the insurance company is going to take the expense out of their executive bonuses, do you?

Staged accidents are dangerous criminal events that target innocent drivers with increasingly bold schemes aimed at using the traumatic event and your good faith to make money. Unless someone becomes suspicious, many of these staged accidents go undetected. NICB has created a series of videos demonstrating some of the most common types of staged accidents. They can be viewed here: https://www.nicb.org/multimedia/staged-videos/staged-accident-videos.

Consumers may visit https://www.nicb.org/theft_and_fraud_awareness/brochures to review a library of valuable theft and fraud awareness information where you can find a specific brochure describing staged accident fraud. It’s free and it just might help prevent you from falling victim to fraud scams.

The complete staged accident questionable claims report is also available at www.nicb.org.