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Published: May 24, 2022, 7:56 p.m.

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The Sweet Little Old Lady & Fraud 

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https://zalma.com/blog

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Insurance Fraud is an Equal Opportunity Crime  

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The Insured was 82 years old and bored. She was born shortly after the  turn of the century to a wealthy family of Connecticut merchants. She  had been a debutante. She lived most of her life in luxury. Now, at 82,  she was a widow living alone.  She had a small income from her husband\\u2019s estate and 82-years-worth of  things. 

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The things bored her. Living alone bored her. Simply passing the  days caused her nothing but unexplainable exhaustion. Her life needed  something to keep her interest. The Insured, regardless of her age, had a  fine and steady hand. Her penmanship was, in these days of computers,  exotic.  

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The agent responded, with sympathy: \\u201cBeing burglarized is nothing to be  ashamed of. It happens every day. That\\u2019s why you bought insurance. What  was taken?\\u201d  \\u201cEverything, all my fine things. 

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They are all gone.\\u201d  

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Lloyd\\u2019s directed a local adjuster to investigate the claim. When he  arrived at the Insured\\u2019s home he found minimal furniture in relatively  poor condition. He found the Insured to be a pleasant old lady who stood  only five foot one inches tall. She was thin and frail looking and  could not have weighed more than ninety pounds.  

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She told the adjuster:  I had hired a lady from El Salvador to help me clean my silver. It\\u2019s  just too big a job for me now that I\\u2019m 82. Her name was Juanita. I don\\u2019t  know her last name. I believe her number and name was on a card on the  bulletin board at the Ralphs grocery store.  Juanita and I had been cleaning the silver for about an hour using very  strong ammonia when the fumes began to bother me and I became faint. I  really don\\u2019t know what happened, but the next thing I remember I was  waking up on the kitchen floor. Juanita was gone.   Upset at the calumny of the El Salvadorian domestic the adjuster wanted  to help. 

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He promised to complete his investigation rapidly. He would  make sure her claim was paid as promptly as possible.  The adjuster had been well trained. He knew that Lloyd\\u2019s underwriters  expected him to verify the appraisal with Mr. McCarthy. He knew that  they also required that the claims handler verify the values of the  things claimed stolen. 

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 A fraud was thwarted. The Insured put some excitement into the dull life  of an 82-year-old widow. Little harm was done and the adjuster has a  story about a fraudulent claim that will top that of all his  contemporaries. Because they rescinded the policy Lloyd\\u2019s returned the  premium.  

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ZALMA OPINION

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Insurers must, to conduct a thorough investigation without bias, stop  the criminal actions of sweet old ladies or hardened criminals equally.  If not, crime will succeed.  The innocent ex-convict will lose the  indemnity to which he is entitled.  The criminal grandmother will recover and everyone who buys insurance  will pay more than they should. 

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 (c) 2022 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.

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