Renters Insurance Claim Fraud

My question involves insurance law for the state of: indiana.

I inflated my renters insurance claim by about $2000. I knew it was wrong and called the insurance company back later to confess and set the record straight. I know I will be removed from all policies with that company, but my question is how likely are they to peruse this further and prosecute me for fraud?

Give the money back and that would probably be the end of it.

I never even received the settlement, I re-recorded my statement a few weeks after initially filing the claim, so it was still in the investigative stage. The woman I spoke to in investigations said that she didn't think they would pursue it, but it goes up to some national insurance investigating organization. Just trying to determine if I need to lawyer up.

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Quoting Jakewarr

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Just trying to determine if I need to lawyer up.

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Only if you're contacted by the police.

Good luck getting insurance in the future too.

So no one has an opinion if the the national insurance crime bureau will prosecute, after the insurance company closes the investigation? I'm holding out some hope since I admitted to it early and before any payment.

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Quoting Jakewarr

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So no one has an opinion if the the national insurance crime bureau will prosecute, after the insurance company closes the investigation? I'm holding out some hope since I admitted to it early and before any payment.

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Nobody here has a crystal ball. You'll have to wait and see.

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Quoting Jakewarr

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So no one has an opinion if the the national insurance crime bureau will prosecute, after the insurance company closes the investigation? I'm holding out some hope since I admitted to it early and before any payment.

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Note that the National Insurance Crime Bureau is a nonprofit organization funded by insurers to help develop effective way to detect and combat insurance fraud. It is not a government agency and has no power to prosecute anyone. Your insurer would have to report the fraud to the police, and the police would refer it to the prosecutor if they thought there was something there to go after. Ultimately it is the prosecutor who would file charges. I think it very unlikely under the facts you described that the prosecutor would be interested in going after you here. You never benefited from it and the amount involved here is not real huge to begin with. Had you actually gotten the money it would be different story.

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Quoting Jakewarr

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I never even received the settlement,

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You might have said that earlier.

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Quoting Jakewarr

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So no one has an opinion if the the national insurance crime bureau will prosecute, after the insurance company closes the investigation? I'm holding out some hope since I admitted to it early and before any payment.

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I spent 35 years in the insurance business the last 9 of which as a property claim rep.

Here's how I see it.

You filed a claim, you made errors, you corrected the errors before you got paid. It isn't likely that anything bad will happen but you'll just have to wait and see.

I appreciate the feedback. In response to an earlier reply: the woman I spoke with said the insurance company does not report anything to the police, they send all investigations to the NICB, so I guess I'm at their mercy as to whether they want to press charges.

Update: the insurance company completed the investigation, officially denied claim due to misrepresentation. Now it goes to NICB. I'm going to wait a while longer before contacting a lawyer.

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Quoting Jakewarr

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I'm going to wait a while longer before contacting a lawyer.

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That's all you can do.

Wait.