SACRAMENTO — Motorists unable to afford payments on pricey cars and gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles in this recession are turning to a time-tested financing solution: matches.
Insurance cheats are torching their vehicles in remote deserts. They're pushing them off cliffs. They're sinking them in lakes or ditching them in Mexico in the hopes of getting their policies to pay off, fraud investigators say.
Nationwide, suspicious vehicle fires or arson increased 27% in the first quarter of this year compared with a year earlier, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, an industry-supported agency that investigates all types of insurance fraud. So-called owner give-ups -- cars intentionally destroyed or abandoned -- jumped 24%.
Barbecuing a Beamer is one of the more dramatic types of suspected insurance fraud that's increasing in this economic downturn, the deepest in more than half a century. But it's not the only one. Suspicious personal injury slip-and-fall claims increased 60% in the first quarter; staged car accident cases were up 34% and commercial property fire/arson cases jumped 76%.
Some consumers figure that they've paid premiums year after year, experts said, and that their insurers might not closely check every single claim. In fact, investigators say they tend to be particularly busy during tough economic times when an increasing number of policyholders are caught in financial crunches.
"When the economy goes south, crime goes up," said Frank Scafidi, a crime bureau spokesman in Sacramento.
Investigators say the number of suspected give-ups, which are often hard to prove, is minuscule compared with the more than 1 million vehicles reported stolen each year. They acknowledge that suspected fraud may be underreported because insurers can't meticulously investigate every vehicle fire or disappearance. Nevertheless, they said, the trend is clearly accelerating with 757 suspected vehicle fires nationwide in the first quarter of 2009, up from 596 in the same period last year.
Crime bureau investigators found a direct correlation between owners missing multiple car payments and the filing of false insurance claims. Rising gasoline prices also appear to be linked to suspected fraud cases involving fuel-sucking SUVs. A soft used-car market also has consumers looking to their insurers for relief -- albeit illegally.
"People think it's an easier out if they can no longer afford a car, but, unfortunately, it's a crime," Scafidi said.
