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Common Surveillance Tactics Used By Insurance Companies

If you have an injury or disability claim, you should be aware of the various investigative techniques insurance companies use to cast doubt on the legitimacy of your claim. Remember, the insurance company’s goal is to not pay you what it owes you, but to either prevent you from making any recovery, or having to pay out the least amount possible. Surveillance is the most common one. Typically, insurance companies use surveillance after they take the deposition of the claimant. At the deposition, insurance companies will ask detailed questions as to what claimants can no longer do. Then, they will hire an investigator that is familiar with doing disability or injury video surveillance to conduct observations on the claimant’s day to day activities in an attempt to catch them doing activities inconsistent with their deposition testimony. Surveillance is not obvious. Most of the time, a person does not know that he/she is being followed or videoed. Investigators accomplish this in different ways. Most of the time, they use two vehicles. One would go straight when the person turns and the other would then pick up. Investigators almost never follow right behind the person or stand out in a crowd. Furthermore, investigators can basically do video surveillance just about anywhere in the general public, such as parks, gyms, restaurants, church, etc., except for in the person’s home or place of business.

Insurance companies will also watch what is being posted on social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Craigslist, etc. Anything that the person posts online could be used against him/her – photos, videos, audio, content. The very act of posting may be used against the person if he/she claims an inability to perform daily activities of living, yet posts Tweets every fifteen minutes.

Injury and disability claimants should be aware that insurance companies sometimes engage in unfair surveillance tactics, such as using obtained images, posts and recording out of context because these images still could remain powerful defense arguments for insurance companies.

Also, please be aware that insurance companies could repeat surveillance when they were not able to capture some compelling evidence during the recent attempts.If you believe you are being stalked or videotaped, call the police to confront the strange vehicle or person. After all, you can never know if the stalker is from the insurance company or is someone to rob or hurt you. If you are pursuing an injury or disability claim, do not assume that just because you may have a legitimate injury claim, you are not going to become a surveillance target. You should always be aware of activities you are doing and the impact they could have on your claim should the insurance company capture them and use them, even if taken out of context.

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