Insurance Fraud
In order to combat the serious and, unfortunately, pervasive problem of insurance fraud in Passaic County, an Insurance Fraud Unit, dedicated solely to investigating and prosecuting these types of crimes, was established in June of 1999. The formation of this unit in Passaic County followed closely after the creation of New Jersey’s Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor in 1998. Today, Passaic County’s Insurance Fraud Unit consists of eight persons; four of these positions being funded with grant monies from the State’s Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor.
Insurance fraud covers a wide range of attempts to steal from insurance companies. The types of insurance fraud primarily investigated by Passaic County’s Insurance Fraud Unit include: staged automobile accidents, fraudulent medical and/or chiropractic billings, payment of runner fees and fraudulent auto thefts. The persons involved in these schemes include the accident "victims", runners, doctors, chiropractors, lawyers and automobile repairmen. Sometimes, "exemplary citizens" – persons who would never consider robbing a bank or burglarizing a house – can get involved in cheating insurance companies.
Insurance fraud schemes can be tangled, sophisticated and extremely detrimental to society. The false health and automobile claims inflate insurance premiums for all policy holders, and some scams, such as staged accidents, can actually threaten the physical safety of the motoring public and innocent bystanders.
