Insurance fraud is a tale as old as time. The earliest recorded
incident occurred in Ancient Greece, around 300 BC. Hegestratos, a
merchant, took out an insurance policy which required payment (with
interest) upon his ship's safe arrival to its destination.
Failing to repay the loan would result in repossession of the ship
and its cargo. Hegestratos conspired to commit insurance fraud by
sinking his empty ship and selling the cargo, thereby keeping the
loan. For the record, he was unsuccessful, as he drowned trying to
escape his crew who caught on to his plans.1
Since then, transportation methods have evolved, and so have
opportunities for fraud.
Prevalence and Methods
The Final Report of the Ontario Automobile Insurance Anti-Fraud
Task Force revealed the high cost of insurance fraud: between $766
million to $1.56 billion dollars in 2010. In the four years
preceding the report, the number of accidents and injuries reported
to the police decreased, yet the number
