Scams and rip-offs – fraud hurts everyone

Perhaps I am stating the obvious. The reality is the impact of fraud is felt by everyone, including customers, policyholders and the general public, who are left to foot the bill by paying increasingly higher insurance premiums. According to a report published by the FBI, the annual estimated cost of insurance fraud is $40 billion, and that does not even include health insurance fraud.

Fraud losses related to shipping of high-value goods are a significant concern today and will continue to rise, especially as e-commerce shipping continues to grow dramatically. According to the Technavio Luxury E-tailing Market 2015-2019 report, the online sale of luxury goods will likely double to nearly $42B by 2019. So, it’s important for the industry to be vigilant and be aware of ongoing scams and find ways to mitigate more common fraudulent activity.

High-value shipments are generally targeted well in advance by criminals, who often have a buyer already lined up before the crime actually occurs. And criminals are quite savvy in how they hit their marks. Small package shipping is often an easy target as fraudsters have identified some scams that appear to be effective if the right processes are not in place, and we’ll share some of those with you.