A True Crime Video of Insurance Fraud

The Flying Carpet

A Fictionalized True Crime Story of Insurance Fraud from an Expert who explains why Insurance Fraud is a “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” situation for Insurers. The stories help to Understand How, and why, my book Insurance Fraud in America is Costing Everyone was written to explain to those who buy insurance thousands of dollars every year and why insurance fraud is safer and more profitable for the ­­­perpetrators than any other crime. The names of the perpetrators and the locations were changed to protect the guilty.

The original title was “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” and was meant to describe insurance fraud as it works in the Unites States. It means that whenever a person succeeds in perpetrating an insurance fraud everyone who buys insurance is the loser.

If the fraud succeeds the insurer must charge more premium to cover the expense of defending the fraud and payment of funds to the fraud perpetrator. If the fraud fails the insurer must charge more premium to cover the expense of defending the fraud. Everyone, except the lawyers, lose.

Before the ISO changed the homeowners program to include a special limit of liability for theft of antique rugs, homeowners insurers found themselves faced with reports of the thefts of thousands of antique Persian rugs valued between $10,000 and $20,000 each. Although most of the claims appeared suspicious, the insurers were unable to prove the nonexistence of the rugs and were compelled to pay claims.

When the special limit of liability was adopted, the rash of Persian rug thefts stopped. It was as if a ring of burglars suddenly left the country.

The fraudulent Persian rug claim industry ceased doing business.

Immigrant communities in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and other major cities found other ways to earn money.

© 2021 – Barry Zalma

Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, now limits his practice to service as an insurance consultant specializing in insurance coverage, insurance claims handling, insurance bad faith and insurance fraud almost

equally for insurers and policyholders. He also serves as an arbitrator or mediator for insurance related disputes. He practiced law in California for more than 44 years as an insurance coverage and claims handling lawyer and more than 52 years in the insurance business. He is available at http://www.zalma.com and zalma@zalma.com.

Mr. Zalma is the first recipient of the first annual Claims Magazine/ACE Legend Award.

Over the last 53 years Barry Zalma has dedicated his life to insurance, insurance claims and the need to defeat insurance fraud. He has created the following library of books and other materials to make it possible for insurers and their claims staff to become insurance claims professionals.

Go to the podcast Zalma On Insurance at https://anchor.fm/barry-zalma;  Follow Mr. Zalma on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bzalma; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/c/c-262921; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysiZklEtxZsSF9DfC0Expg; Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims-library/ Read posts from Barry Zalma at https://parler.com/profile/Zalma/posts; and the last two issues of ZIFL at https://zalma.com/zalmas-insurance-fraud-letter-2/