IBC presents first annual ‘Scam-ademy Awards’

It’s awards season, so the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is recognizing the worst performances by insurance scam artists in 2006.
There’s no glitz, no glamour and no red carpet, IBC vice president of investigations Rick Dubin said of the IBCs first-annual Scam-ademy Awards. And the winners are, in fact, losers who tried to cheat Canadian insurance companies and their customers and got caught.
Dubin reiterated that the IBC considers auto theft to be a serious crime. Auto theft costs Canadian policyholders about Cdn$3 billion a year.
“But sometimes fraud artists deliver performances that are so brazen and so dumb that they warrant some kind of recognition,” Dubin added.
The Fraudster Award for Worst Picture goes to “Around the World in 80 Cars.”
IBC reviewed the picture as an epic scam that stretched from Canada to the Middle East.
These audacious fraud artists were not only car thieves, they were identity thieves as well, an IBC press release notes. They created a string of false identities and fake credit reports, and used them to lease over 80 high-end cars.
The cars were then packed up and shipped to buyers in countries throughout the Middle East. After the cars had sailed away, the gang tried to report some of them stolen in an attempt to collect on the insurance as well. The trail of fake paperwork led to seven suspects. As the credits rolled, five men were facing charges and arrest warrants had been issued for the other two.
The IBC also presented a Fraudster Award for the category of Worst Performance by Actors in Supporting Roles. This year, the award went to the picture “Same Time Next Week.”
This cast of characters had a lot in common as they tried to cheat the system, an IBC press release reads. They all appeared to be lousy drivers, they all drove rental cars and, most amazingly, they always crashed at the same time of day and the same day of the week.
They did it once and then went on to produce 11 sequels. They all had the same plot. One car with two people in it hit another car with three or four in it.
They all used the same paralegals and went to the same clinics for treatment, as they tried to bilk insurers with false claims.
Of course, insurers were quickly wise to what happened and the claims were denied.
For a complete list of Scam-ademy Awards, go to: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/February2007/21/c2410.html