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Louie the Switch 

Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE presents videos so you can learn how insurance  fraud is perpetrated and what is necessary to deter or defeat insurance  fraud.Louie made his living buying and selling used cars in Salt Lake  City. He would attend a dealer\\u2019s auction and buy a slightly damaged  vehicle, take it to a shop, clean it up, paint it and sell it to  downtown dealers. 

Fifty cars would go through Louie\\u2019s hands every month. He made a  relatively good living clearing between $500 and $2,000 on each  transaction. Louie was greedy. The Switch had no moral character. Louie  was dishonest. If he could make an extra $1000 on a sale by turning back  the odometer 10,000 miles, he turned it back. If he could sell a car  for an extra $1000 by rubbing grease on the seams where the repairs from  an accident had been done, he crawled under the car and spread the  grease.Everyone liked Louie. He was a friendly sort. Louie had no  trouble making friends.  Everyone at the auto auction knew him. Louie was a professional. He only  bought used cars that he could make look good and sell. He never bought  bad cars. The Switch always paid for his purchases in cash.If Louie had  a weakness, it was skiing. Every winter he would drive from Salt Lake  to the mountains of Utah and ski. He owned a condo in Park City which he  used when he did not have a tenant for the condo.

A FRAUD IS BORN

What he  saw as the need for the dream cabin drove Louie to crime. One of his  acquaintances, a tow truck operator, told him that a lien sale for  storage charges was about to happen on a four-wheel drive crew cab Chevy  pickup that Louie could buy for $250. The pickup had been declared a  total loss by the insurance company after it was driven head-on into a  sixteen wheeler while going the wrong way on the interstate. Louie  already had in his inventory a four-wheel drive Chevy crew cab. His mind  began to spin with devious criminal thoughts. 

THE FRAUD FAILS 

The insurance company investigator was ready to pay Louie the full  stated value on the policy until he received a declaration of total auto  theft from Louie. Louie represented in the declaration that the truck  had an automatic transmission and a gasoline engine.  The investigator knew, from his experience with vehicle identification  numbers, that the VIN number identified this truck as having a  five-speed standard transmission and a diesel engine. He was  confused.The investigator then searched the National Insurance Crime  Bureau (NICB) computer for information on the vehicle.   The computer informed the investigator that the vehicle had been in a  major automobile accident only thirty (30) days before Louie insured it.  The vehicle had been declared a total loss by its insurer. NICB  obtained a copy of the prior insurer\\u2019s file, including photographs  showing the total destruction of the vehicle.Luck, a knowledgeable  adjuster, the massive database maintained by the National Insurance  Crime Bureau and the resourcefulness of DMV investigators stopped an  almost perfect crime.When news of Louie\\u2019s arrest, conviction and  sentence reached the auto market reported thefts in the Salt Lake City  area dropped 10% for the next six months. ZALMA OPINION  Although insurance fraud seems an easy and safe crime to pursue it is  still a crime and failure to effectively pursue a fraudulent claim can  result in prison. This case explained to the public that fraud is not  worth the effort when it can result in jail.  

(c) 2022 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.