“If you need money burn your car,” a new auto fraud trend is growing

Pressed by the current financial environment car owners render to deceptive tricks to get more money. According to the reports from the Associated Press a growing number of people are torching, sinking or ditching their vehicles and then reporting them stolen to cash in on the insurance.

A number of SUVs were found ablaze in the Nevada desert. Cars were dumped in a Miami canal and a BMW was discovered buried in a field in Texas. Besides, some people deliberately parked their vehicles in the path of a hurricane.

While auto thefts substantially reduced across the country the number of the scams called owner give-ups is increasing. According to the official information false claims come from first-time offenders looking for a quick financial fix with little regard for the consequences.

"We see people doing this kind of crime who ordinarily wouldn't steal candy from a store," said Tom Reilly, a sheriff's investigator in Dallas County, Texas.

People think that "insurance companies are rich and fat and won't miss a few dollars”, notes James Quiggle, a spokesman for the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.

A number of suspicious auto theft were reported by the investigators at the time when gas prices rose up to $4 a gallon last summer. And while those reports included only SUVs and other gas guzzlers, when gas prices dipped and the economy sputtered, the trend extended to all kinds of models. The highest level of losses was recorded concentrated in regions hit hard by layoffs, foreclosures and other signs of economic distress.

Two years ago, Las Vegas detectives were looking into two or three cases of suspicious auto theft a week. But in the past 2 1/2 months, they have investigated 83 such cases and made 11 arrests — more than a three-fold increase, said Lt. Bob Duvall, head of the city's Metropolitan Police Department's auto theft unit.

The New York Alliance Against Insurance Fraud says the number of people arrested statewide on suspicion of making false auto theft reports jumped from 96 in 2007 to 130 in 2008.

In Dallas County, Reilly estimates suspicious auto theft reports have increased 12 percent this year.

Such cases can result in felony charges of insurance fraud, making false statements to police and insurance providers, and arson, if the car is burned.

Along with serving prison time, defendants can also be ordered to pay restitution.

Reilly says most of his cases don't make it to trial because suspects strike plea deals. Some even agree to discuss their crimes in videotaped interviews that Reilly uses for educational seminars.

Source: The Associated Press