Insurance Journal Airs Fight against Fraud

Fraud costs the insurance industry between $85 billion and $120 billion a year, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.). Independent agents, claims adjusters, and most importantly consumers are impacted by this problem.

Wells Publishing, which produces www.insurancejournal.com and www.claimsguides.com, recently unveiled a weekday fraudcast titled The Daily Fraudcaster to report on the industry’s fight against fraud.

Online Editor Dave Thomas, who compiles the information from various insurance departments and industry resources and reads the reports, said that fraud was one area not being talked about enough in the industry.

“We see the studies like those by the Insurance Information Institute and others, but do independent agents, claims adjusters, or consumers, really know the full impact of fraud in the industry?,” asked Thomas. “We felt The Daily Fraudcaster was a service that would aid both agents and adjusters in knowing who the bad players are out there in the industry.”

Mitch Dunford, chief operating officer of Insurance Journal, noted that fraud stories are some of the most well read news stories on Insurance Journal’s Web site. It seemed natural to follow them up with an audio broadcast.

“Insurancejournal.com has taken fraud news to the next level by making it available in an audio format,” Dunford said.

While the Monday through Thursday reports reflect a more ‘serious side’ of fraud’s impact on the industry, Friday’s report, called Friday Follies, highlights some of the more bizarre cases. In addition, The Daily Fraudcaster has begun to feature industry experts that can speak directly on fraud’s impact in the industry. It all adds up to letting the industry know what is going on when it comes to fraud.

Dunford noted that what is unique about the Fraudcaster is the manner in which it is distributed. The Daily Fraudcaster can be heard via the Insurance Journal Web site in the audio/video features section, or broadcasts can be automatically downloaded using an RSS feed in a process known as ‘podcasting.’

The RSS feed makes it possible for anyone with an Internet connection and the right software (iPodder) to automatically download The Daily Fraudcaster broadcast to their computer or handheld MP3 player. Once downloaded, the broadcast can be replayed at anytime. “RSS technology is just beginning to gain in popularity and ease of use,” Dunford added.

“The Insurance Journal online team believes RSS and other similar technologies will continue to grow in popularity and will open up new methods of distribution for Insurance Journal’s editorial content,” Dunford added.

The Daily Fraudcaster broadcasts highlight three to five fraud-related news stories per day in less than five minutes.

“While we take this matter very seriously, we want to have some fun with it,” Thomas said. “I think one of the reasons people seem to enjoy listening to it is that for some morbid reason, people like to hear about and see others getting in trouble.”

And ‘podcasting’ provides the right venue for a new generation of listeners.

“Podcasting allows very niche audiences to listen to downloaded audio content at their convenience, and the popularity of the format is growing exponentially,” said Insurance Journal’s New Media Producer Chad Reese. “Once we stumbled on the catchy name of The Daily Fraudcaster, the rest just fell into place.”

The Newsfeed page on Insurance Journal Online provides links to The Daily Fraudcaster podcast RSS feed and the online audio. This page also contains RSS links to Insurance Journal’s daily headlines newsfeeds: http://insurancejournal.com/newsfeed/

Topics Fraud