Car Insurance Fraud in New York

Sammy had a great racket going. His customers brought him their proof-of-insurance cards and Sammy doctored them. He was a pretty good counterfeiter, but he’d had a close call a few years back when he’d been trying to sell forged social security cards to illegal immigrants. The penalties for that sort of activity were so harsh that Sammy didn’t want to risk it any longer. That’s when he got into the insurance card business. Insurance cards are issued by private companies, not the government, so the penalties were a slap on the wrist compared to government fraud. Sammy had quite a following and business was growing every day.

New York Realizes a Problem

Fraud like Sammy’s business is pretty easy to do, and often hard to detect. A skilled counterfeiter like Sammy simply alters the dates on the insurance cards. If one of Sammy’s customers is stopped for a traffic offense, he shows his doctored car to the police officer. A simple change of an “01″ to an “07″ can give fraudsters several extra years to drive uninsured. Unless the officer looks very carefully, he might not even notice that the date has been changed. Sammy’s customer might still get a ticket, but he’ll avoid the hassle of driving without insurance. It’s a simple plan.

In the past, it was easy to get away with, but the Larkin bill has changed that. the bill creates a new crime for forgery of insurance documents. It also makes possession of forged car insurance documents a crime. Officers are aware of the bill, and are now very careful to check all insurance cards for tampering. Unfortunately Sammy isn’t aware of this bill.

Sammy Gets Busted

Max, one of Sammy’s customers, is out driving with his forged car insurance card. A police officer notices that he doesn’t have his seat belt on, and pulls him over. He takes the insurance card back to his cruiser to check it out, and he thinks that he notices some evidence of doctoring. He goes back to the car and confronts Max. Max is very scared of getting in trouble, so he immediately confesses. He also tells the officer how to get ahold of Sammy. The next time Max and Sammy see each other, they’re in a courtroom.

We can all learn a valuable lesson from Sammy. It may seem like a great way to save money - you just pay a con like Sammy to doctor the date on your insurance card. It might cost you a hundred dollars, but if you can get five years of uninsured driving out of that one payment, you save a lot of money, right? Well, not anymore. If you get caught with a doctored insurance card in your possession, you’ll be paying a lot more in fines and court costs.

Saving money on your car insurance is much easier than finding a counterfeiter like Sammy. You might not save nearly as much money up front, but you’ll save a lot more if you’re pulled over by a police officer. Use carinsurancerates.com to find the lowest rate available to you. You can save some money, and save yourself from meeting up with Sammy… In prison.