Financing Fraud

Herein lies the biggest misunderstanding of all.

When the guy on television boasts, "Larry Lawyer got me two point three million dollars," America cheers.

When Stella spilled hot coffee in her own lap and the jury said that her injury was worth millions, America cheered.
Don't get us wrong. If an insurance claim is valid and the compensation makes sense, America should be happy -- because that is the way that insurance SHOULD work. But if a claim contains elements of fraud or if the payment is way out of line with the injury, America should get angry. Why? Because that money belongs to you. YOU are paying it. Those million dollar bills do not grow on trees in the jungle, they are paid in premiums by all policyholders.

If Rodney Crooked gets a few million dollars, check your own pockets -- a few cents is missing. And with every additional inflated award, you lose a few more cents. By the time the day is done, your insurance premiums have gone up a dollar. And then another and another.

Just as an example, it is estimated that 1/3 of all automobile insurance premiums end up, one way or another, in the hands of crooks. If fraud did not exist, YOU would still have that money in YOUR pocket.

Now let's talk about the banking industry for a moment. If lending institutions were not bleeding money into the hands of crooks, they wouldn't have to charge the masses of honest people so many darn fees.

Or the credit card industry. How about those $29 late fees? Those 20+ percent interest rates that college students (having applied for their very first credit card) pay? Or the insane over-limit fees that are assessed when a cardholder goes twelve cents over his credit limit? Or annual charge fees? All of those extra "gouge dollars" go into the giant pot that doles out money to fraudsters. YOU are being charged what the market will bear. Just how much are you willing to bear?

Now walk into your favorite clothing store. $34 for a t-shirt that has a brand name emblazoned across it ... for about a dollar worth of material. Why? Hmmm. Let's see what you are REALLY paying for. All of the frauds that take place throughout the process, from manufacturing all the way to the sales floor. YOU get to pay $34 so that a thief can shoplift, so that the guy who lifts the stock can file a fake or exaggerated  worker's compensation claim, and so another mall patron can fall down in a puddle of strawberry Slurpee and claim whiplash.

Control the frauds. Control the prices.

Fight Fraud America!