A New Bicycle from the Insurance? Hamburg Detective Agency Investigates Insurance Fraud
When fictitious damages are to be settled via insurance
To insure a bicycle, no expensive special policy is required. The bicycle is considered household contents and is therefore automatically covered by household contents insurance. This generally also applies to e-bikes or pedelecs, provided they do not require a moped licence plate. Household contents insurance is a replacement value insurance. This means that even old, used items are compensated at the current replacement price. For some, the temptation is therefore great to replace a no longer fully functional bicycle at the expense of the insurance. However, in doing so, the policyholder is committing insurance fraud and thus a criminal offence.
Even though insurance contracts are based on mutual trust and insurers do not treat every claim as potential fraud, they repeatedly deploy investigators such as our insurance detectives in Hamburg, who are well acquainted with the usual tricks used by perpetrators and can prove them in a manner admissible in court. What may seem like a minor offence to supplement household income can quickly turn into unpleasant criminal prosecution. Kurtz Detective Agency Hamburg is also pleased to act nationwide for your insurance company: +49 40 2320 5053.
Simple Theft Must Be Insured Separately | Hardly Any Investigative Options for Detective Agencies and Authorities
Fraud most frequently occurs in connection with bicycle theft. In its basic version, household contents insurance only covers burglary, for example the theft of a bicycle from a locked cellar, garage or enclosed garden. Missing or implausible signs of forced entry raise doubts about the description of the damage.
The information portal fahrradexperten.com demonstrates the possibility of extending household contents insurance to include simple theft, that is the removal of the bicycle, for example from a bicycle rack outside a supermarket. As there are usually no traces and no video recordings in such cases, reliable proof is hardly possible. Accordingly, our private detectives in Hamburg also have only limited means of providing counter-evidence. At the very least, insurers require a police report in order to raise the threshold for staging a theft. In addition, proof of purchase must be provided. Anyone unable to produce this must expect a flat-rate reduction in compensation.
Actual Theft Is Artificially Inflated
Fraud in bicycle theft cases does not only occur through reporting a theft when the bicycle has in fact been disposed of illegally. If the bicycle has genuinely been stolen, the damage is artificially inflated by subsequently manipulating handwritten receipts from the retailer. By means of forensic analysis, research and software solutions, our detectives in Hamburg identify alterations to scanned invoices, check for inconsistencies between the specified bicycle model and the inflated invoice amount and, where necessary, trace the original seller in order to compare the documents. We are happy to advise you as an insurer if you suspect a case of insurance abuse or fraud: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-hamburg.de.
The deliberate destruction of insured items also constitutes insurance fraud; setting fire to buildings is probably the most extreme and unscrupulous form. The offences described above occur far more frequently.
Author: Tobias Neumann (Guest Author)
Kurtz Detective Agency Hamburg
Colonnaden 5
D-20354 Hamburg
Tel.: +49 40 2320 5053
Mobil: +49 163 8033 967
E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-hamburg.de
Tags: detective agency, private detective agency, commercial detective agency, Hamburg, private detective, detective office, commercial detective, insurance fraud, household contents insurance, bicycle theft, theft, burglary, house burglary, residential burglary, insurance detective, insurance abuse, arson
Kurtz Detective Agency Hamburg
Colonnaden 5
20354 Hamburg
Tel.: +49 40 2320 5053
kontakt@kurtz-detektei-hamburg.de
Monday–Friday: 08:00–20:00
Since 2016, Kurtz Investigations has continuously supported the well:fair Neven Subotic Foundation, which provides children in underprivileged regions with access to clean water and education.
*Note: All assignments of Kurtz Detective Agency Hamburg are carried out and billed from Colonnaden 5 in Hamburg. Other deployment locations or regions advertised on this domain are not local branches or business premises of Kurtz Detective Agency, unless explicitly stated otherwise. We conduct investigations nationwide, across Europe and worldwide — either in cooperation with qualified, vetted local experts from our extensive contact network or by dispatching our own specialists. Further information on fees can be found here and on deployment locations here.
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