Insurers and Police Investigate Claims on Social Media

    November 1, 2011

    Insurers and police are using information from Facebook and Twitter to nail policyholders for filing inflated or fraudulent claims, according to the Sun Sentinel.

    In one instance, a woman filed a claim with her auto insurer, saying a hit-and-run driver damaged her car, but investigators discovered comments on her Facebook page indicating that her daughter was responsible for the accident. According to the office that oversees the state Division of Insurance Fraud, the policyholder was convicted last month of filing a fraudulent insurance claim.

    In another instance, a police investigator noted that two people who had been in separate cars in the crash had listed each other as “friends” on Facebook, and one even had referenced the accident on their Facebook page, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. A warrant is reportedly out for their arrest.

    “The up-and-coming investigators are using [social media] as an investigative tool,” the article reports.

    These investigations underscore the importance of attorneys monitoring their client’s social media activities. Each day, more and more people are chronicling the intimate details of their daily lives on social media sites.  While some attorney chose to ignore the significant of social media information, articles such as these should persuade attorneys to pay closer attention to what their clients – and their client’s employees – are posting on social media sites.


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