About the National Insurance Crime Bureau
For more than a century, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) has stood as the nation's leading not-for-profit organization dedicated to fighting insurance crime. We partner with insurers, law enforcement agencies, and the public to detect, prevent, and stop insurance fraud before it costs honest policyholders another dollar.
Our mission is simple: protect consumers and the insurance industry from the financial and personal toll of fraud through investigation, intelligence, education, and advocacy.
What is Insurance Fraud?
Insurance fraud is any deliberate act of deception committed with the intent of taking financial advantage of an insurance company, agent, or policyholder. It can range from a policyholder inflating the value of a legitimate claim to organized criminal networks staging elaborate schemes worth millions of dollars. Both are crimes, and both drive up costs for everyone.
The True Cost of Insurance Fraud for Americans
Insurance fraud isn't a victimless crime. Not only does it impact every policyholder in the country by increasing insurance premiums, in many cases insurance fraud fuels organized and violent crime.
In a study completed in 2022, our partner association, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, estimated that fraud across all lines of insurance costs the U.S. economy roughly $308 billion every year. As a result, the average American family pays up to $900 more per year in insurance premiums, taking a large portion of hard-earned household budgets.
Types of Insurance Fraud We Investigate
Insurance fraud takes many forms, and NICB partners with member companies, partner agencies, and law enforcement to combat them all. While our foundation is rooted in vehicle fraud and crimes, NICB has branched out to assist member companies with a variety of insurance-related fraud topics including:
Vehicle Fraud and Theft
NICB analysts track stolen-vehicle trends, work directly with law enforcement to identify stolen vehicles, recover vehicles, and help identify potential chop shops and theft rings that dismantle vehicles for parts.
Predatory towing operators arrive at accident scenes, use high pressure tactics, and inflate towing and storage fees. NICB helps educate consumers on their rights and works with members and authorities to provide intelligence and investigative assistance to help shut down towing fraud rings.
Following disasters, dishonest contractors target vulnerable homeowners with inflated repair bids, demand large upfront payments, and disappear before finishing the job. NICB works with insurers and regulators to warn consumers before fraud happens.
Medical billing fraud includes phantom procedures, billing for services never rendered, and "upcoding" for more expensive treatments than were performed. Workers' compensation fraud can be committed by employees who fake or exaggerate injuries, or by employers who misclassify workers or underreport payroll to lower premiums. NICB combats these schemes that drain resources meant for legitimately injured workers and honest employers.
Cargo theft costs shippers, carriers, and insurers hundreds of millions of dollars every year. NICB works closely with freight companies and law enforcement task forces to track stolen shipments, identify theft patterns along major transportation corridors, and recover goods before they disappear into secondary markets.
Fraudsters increasingly use stolen personal information to open fraudulent policies, file phony claims, or hijack legitimate ones. Identity theft scams targeting insurance accounts are one of the fastest-growing categories NICB tracks, especially as more transactions move online.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Generated Fraud
A new frontier in insurance crime is emerging as fraudsters use artificial intelligence to manipulate photos of damage, generate fake documentation, and create synthetic identities for fraudulent claims. NICB is investing in its own AI-powered analytics to detect these next-generation schemes as fast as criminals can invent them.
Life, Disability, Supplemental Health, and Long-Term Care Insurance Fraud Schemes
Financial fraud involving life and supplemental income products can involve identity theft, application fraud, faking deaths and altering beneficiaries. NICB has added these types of fraud to our target, bringing expert investigators and analysts, and innovative training to new and existing members.
NICB Fraud Services
Report Insurance Fraud: The NICB Fraud Hotline
If you suspect insurance fraud and crimes, contact the local police and report it online or to the NICB Fraud Hotline at 800-TEL-NICB (800-835-6422).
Free Vehicle History with VINCheck
Before you buy a used vehicle, use VINCheck, NICB's free public vehicle history search to check whether a vehicle has been reported stolen and not yet recovered, or if it has been branded a salvage vehicle by a participating insurance company.
Our Commitment
Insurance fraud touches every policyholder's wallet, whether they realize it or not. The National Insurance Crime Bureau exists to change that — through investigation, education, technology, and partnership. Together with our member companies and law enforcement partners, we're working to make insurance fraud harder to commit and easier to catch.
Suspect fraud? Report it now or call the NICB Hotline at 800-835-6422