Insurance fraud to collect large amounts of money quickly is among the most scandalous schemes in collectibles — and you can easily find yourself the scapegoat. It is an easy crime to commit; all you need is someone to blame it on.
The flooded bookstore
A rare-book dealer in a New York City bookstore was flooded by a broken water pipe and claimed a total loss on his Chubb fine-arts policy. This time the insurer was smart enough to hire a qualified appraiser, who went to the store and cross-referenced the claimed inventory against the books actually there. The most expensive books on the claim were missing. When confronted, the dealer offered the appraiser an immediate cash bribe — admitting the valuable books were safe at home and undamaged, while he tried to claim them anyway.
The honest appraiser is the one thing a fraudulent claim cannot survive.
What the chapter covers
- Inflated "total loss" claims after a convenient disaster
- The patsy — the someone set up to take the blame
- Why insurers who skip a qualified appraiser get taken
- How a real, cross-referenced inventory exposes the fraud