Mercury Insurance Intentionally Crashes Cars in Glendale to Fight Fraud

Insurance fraud costs Californians billions annually, the highest of all U.S. states

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Jan 19, 2015, 02:15 ET

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mercury Insurance Special Investigation Unit (SIU) – the CSI of the insurance industry – demonstrated how fraudsters fake crashes to try to cheat the system at an event in Glendale, Calif. held for nearly 120 police, fire and EMT personnel. Mercury's SIU, a customer advocacy group dedicated to fighting insurance fraud – the second most common type of white collar crime – regularly holds events to help law enforcement effectively recognize this criminal activity at a crash scene.

"We chose Glendale because the average driver in this area will report an accident once every three years, which is significantly more often than the statewide five year average," said Mercury Insurance SIU national director Dan Bales. "Our goal is to keep innocent people from falling victim to tactics such as the swoop and squat or the drive-down, which cost the average family up to $700 in insurance premiums annually."

Mercury's SIU has 37 years of experience exposing fraudulent auto, home and medical claims and has been involved in more than 40,000 investigations, which have saved Mercury policy holders hundreds of millions of dollars. Its crash events aim to make streets safer for motorists by sharing insight of automotive fraud with law enforcement who can remove criminals from California motorways.

"This vehicle crash seminar held by Mercury Insurance helps our detectives and police officers to identify when individuals report fraudulent collision claims," said Glendale traffic Sgt. Craig Tweedy. "By educating our officers about the tactics criminals make, we'll be better at combatting automotive insurance fraud."

If you notice signs of fraud in your community, alert the SIU or law enforcement by calling 1-800-TEL-NCIB and by texting the keyword "fraud" to TIP411.

The event was supported by Enterprise and Colman Macdonald Law Group.

ABOUT MERCURY INSURANCE (www.mercuryinsurance.com)
Mercury Insurance (MCY) is a multiple-line insurance organization offering predominantly personal automobile and homeowners insurance through a network of independent agents in California, Florida, New Jersey, Texas, Arizona, New York, Georgia, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Since 1962, Mercury has specialized in offering quality insurance at affordable prices.