To mark Fraud Prevention Month, SGI has released some of the more notable fake insurance claims uncovered by its special investigative unit.
The unit investigated 481 claims in 2023, 263 of which were fraudulent, totalling $5.9 million.
Decoy for a vehicle theft
According to SGI, a customer reported her vehicle stolen, saying she may have dropped her keys on the driveway while carrying bags into the house. She said thieves must have found her keys and stolen her car.
Earlier that day, police had received a description of a possible impaired driver that matched the description of the customer who reported the stolen vehicle. The possibly impaired driver had struck three cars and the car was abandoned with the keys missing.
Police say the car was full of empty bottles and smelled like alcohol.
Several months later, someone tipped off SGI, reporting they heard the customer say she had been drunk and hit three parked cars, fled the scene and claimed her vehicle as stolen the next day.
When confronted by SGI, the woman admitted to lying and withdrew her claim. She was also liable for the damage to the parked cars.
What a night for a theft
A Saskatchewan woman reported $90,000 in stolen property while she was on vacation, including expensive jewelry.
According to SGI, the woman said she left her jewelry inside a bag in the backseat of her vehicle while she went to a restaurant for dinner. She said everything was stolen, including expensive clothing and electronics.
The woman replaced her jewelry while she was on vacation and submitted a claim with invoices for the purchase of replacement items, SGI said.
SGI said the sale invoices were fake and the expensive jewelry was illegally imported to Canada.
The claim was denied after SGI suspected the theft never occurred and the woman never replaced the jewelry.
A clue for SIU
An anonymous tip to SGI said a man was seen towing a vehicle to a location and unloading it.
The tip said the man then began to vandalize the vehicle, even though it was his own car.
The next day, the vehicle was towed away to an unknown location.
Later, SGI stumbled across three different claims from three separate vehicle owners, but the claims were eerily similar.
Each vehicle had suffered excessive damage and was purchased for the same amount of money. There were similar signatures on the bill of sale and all vehicles were listed as rebuilds.
According to SGI, all three owners shared the man’s address and phone number.
SGI said the damage was intentional to commit fraud.
Nowhere to hide
Another notable insurance scam, according to SGI, occurred when a Saskatchewan man called police, claiming his vehicle had been stolen while he was shopping.
Investigators found the man’s vehicle had been parked in one spot for a very long time. The man had left it there months prior and never came back for it.
SGI says police charged the man with fraud and public mischief.
Mind your own break-in
A woman reported a very large property loss on her home insurance, but the list of damages looked like someone had simply moved — and not suffered anything consistent with a break and enter.
SGI said the woman was unable to provide receipts for any of her belongings, as the critical documents were also stolen.
Investigators found the quantity and kind of food listed as stolen didn’t match the size of the her deep freezer. They person making the claim also said items stolen from a garage.
SGI found no garage on the property.
Witnesses came forward to SGI, saying they saw the woman list the “stolen” items for sale on Facebook Marketplace.
When approached for an interview, SGI said the woman became defensive and abandoned her claim.
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