When tragedy strikes, there will unfortunately be someone nearby who wants to take advantage of the situation for unscrupulous purposes. It’s no different with insurance adjusters; while legit, ethical insurance adjusters want to help their clients, there are some out there who will pretend to be an adjuster just to line their own pockets without providing any help. That’s been the case as of late in Florida, Property Casualty 360° reported recently. The publication noted:
Post-catastrophe fraud has been commonplace for quite some time and is not specific to Florida. National events such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the series of tornadoes that ripped through the Midwest last year have offered fertile grounds for opportunistic con artists. Although some of these gross actors have been brought to justice, ongoing efforts between regulatory entities, law officials, industry organizations, and P&C insurers will be necessary to quell similar crimes.
While the bulk of the story takes place in Florida and outside the Norcia Insurance Consultants service area, it does serve as a good reminder of to be cautious about with whom you do business. In times of catastrophe, you want to make sure that parties coming forward to help you are actually going to do just that. However, you need to know how to weed out the fakes from the real insurance adjusters. How do you do that? Here are a few tips of what to look for in an insurance adjuster.
- Check to see if they’re licensed. This can be done with a simple Internet search or with a phone call to your state’s Department of Insurance. If there’s no record of them, you can probably be sure that they’re not legit.
- Do an online search of them. If they’re a fake, you’re probably not the first person that they’ve bilked money from. And if they’ve done it before, someone has probably filed a complaint that can be located somewhere online.
- If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Don’t believe exaggerated claims or go along with anything illegal or unethical. If this starts to happen, cut all ties with the adjuster and get in touch with someone else.
