(James Andrews) Life insurance fraud is no joke—there are people out there who have gone to extraordinary lengths in order to cheat their life insurance company out of hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions, of dollars.
In fact, statistics show that life insurance companies lose nearly $68 BILLION dollars to life insurance fraud every year—what a staggering number that is! With such a number in mind, you can almost understand why insurance companies have some many hoops to jump through in order to get your claim filed. Which, actually, isn’t such a difficulty if you have nothing to hide! Don’t forget to check out an HBF life insurance policy to find out if you’re compatible with their model.
Another fact is that fraud bureaus are on the rise—as of 2010, just the fraud bureaus alone have employed nearly 1,500 people, including 900 investigators, and 150 prosecutors whose craft is dedicated solely to insurance fraud.
So, what’s all the fuss about? Well, here are two stark raving mad cases of life insurance fraud that have helped set the wheels in motion—they should put things into perspective!
The Great Coffin Caper
Nearly everyone’s sat back and thought… you know, it would kind of be amazing if someone showed up on my doorstep, out of the blue, to tell me that I have relative I didn’t know about who recently passed and named me their beneficiary.
Well, two funeral home workers out of Los Angeles had the very same kind of thought and since no one was coming knocking, they just… invented a relative. This imaginary relative died and left them a $950,000 life insurance policy to collect.
How did they think they were going to get away with it? By going the full nine yards with it. They invented the individual, gathered all of the necessary documentation, purchased a policy for them, “killed” them off, and then through their career resources and experience, staged a full-fledged funeral!
Seems it was quite the production, too, this funeral. They hired mourners and weighted down the coffin with a mannequin, cow meat, and randomly collected bones. Post-funeral, of course, the body was exhumed and cremated, the ashes scattered at sea.
One little detail, though, fell through the cracks when the doctor that they’d bribed to provide fake medical documentation grew a conscience and bailed out on the scheme. His refusal to cooperate foiled their entire plot and sent the pair off to prison—less $950,000.
There’s This Thing Called DNA…
As a fugitive from the law, Clayton Daniels was trying to figure out how he could set things up to where he wouldn’t have to be looking over his shoulder all his life and still provide for his wife, Molly Daniels.
When the pair put their heads together, they ultimately decided that the perfect solution was for Clayton to fake his death! Not a bad plan, actually—the law isn’t going to continue to look for someone who’s dead AND they get to cash it on Clayton’s $110,00 life insurance policy.
Of course, it’s always the execution of a good plan that needs to be spot on and the Daniels’ screwed it up big time. How so? Well, they decided to shove Clayton’s car off of a cliff. Now, of course, the problem with that is there needs to be a body for when the law and the insurance companies come to investigate. Since Clayton couldn’t possibly do that himself, he and Molly bought a couple of shovels and off to the cemetery they went!
With the body of Charlotte Davis, an elderly woman who’s grave they robbed, propped up in the driver’s seat wearing Clayton’s clothes, the Daniels’ set a fire inside the car—presumably to ensure the body burned—and then sent the car off a cliff.
Of course, the couple didn’t quite account for that whole pesky DNA test—ordered by both the criminal investigators and the insurance company—that determined the body in the car was female. They also didn’t account for the fact that they’d be able to tell that the fire originated in the driver’s seat. And, last but not least, they didn’t account for anyone to be watching when Clayton showed back up—in a meager disguise—as Molly’s new boyfriend.