Legal Definitions - insurance fraud

Insurance fraud is when someone does something dishonest to get money from an insurance company. This makes insurance more expensive for everyone and costs the insurance industry billions of dollars every year. It's hard to catch because the person doing it is usually sneaky.

There are two types of insurance fraud: hard fraud and soft fraud. Hard fraud is when someone destroys something on purpose to get money from their insurance. Soft fraud is when someone lies or exaggerates to get more money from their insurance.

Here are some examples of insurance fraud:

• Someone has a policy that is worth more than their property. They might destroy their property on purpose and make it look like an accident so they can get money from their insurance.
• Someone says they got hurt in a car accident, but they really didn't. They just want to get money from their car insurance.
• Someone lies about their health to get cheaper health insurance.

These examples show how people can be dishonest to get money from their insurance. This is not fair to the insurance company or to other people who pay for insurance. Insurance fraud is a type of white-collar crime.