You know, it’s no wonder no one watches the nightly news anymore. All right, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Actually, over 5 million people watch the CBS nightly news! The point is, it seems like every time you turn on the news someone else has decided to try their hand at a life of crime. More often than not it’s the innocent taxpayers who pay the real price. The same goes for insurance fraud and your free car insurance quotes.

Studies show that insurance fraud is on the rise. The numbers are inaccurate (for obvious reasons-the really good frauds never get caught!) but the numbers indicate that they’ve been climbing steadily for the past five years. We now know that fraud slips in as the second most costly crime in the United States…and that’s only because income tax evasion comes with all those pretty penalties and fees along with your jail sentence!

Don’t get on the wrong side of the IRS. It won’t end well for anyone.

Insurance companies have to pay those claims unless they can prove there’s a game afoot, and that’s easier said than done! When you consider they spend thousands, perhaps even millions of dollars on claims that should never have been paid it’s not hard to understand why they might raise their rates. The cost of health care and auto repair are climbing too, and no company stays afloat by paying out more than they bring in.

That doesn’t make it any easier to understand why it’s your money footing the bill.

How much will this swelling of the criminal ranks affect the cost of the free car insurance quotes you worked so hard to get? It’s hard to say. Some companies are barely feeling the pinch, and there hasn’t been anything stated publicly about a company-wide rise in prices to accommodate fraud-that I know of. So don’t worry too much just yet. It’s enough to know that it might be coming, and if you see a boost in the numbers on your next insurance bill you won’t have to ask why.

Insurance fraud has been around almost as long as there’s been insurance. In the old days it was easier, since we lacked the communication devices we have now and it was easier to smuggle away with a load of rum (and sell it in port before declaring it lost at sea) than it is to stage an “accident” in this day and age. Even modern technology can’t stop insurance fraud completely, and there’s much doubt it ever will.

The question is, what are you going to do about it?