When making injury claims, people expect that insurance companies will try to dig into their personal information to discover something that will drive down a settlement. What they don’t expect is that the insurance company will commit fraud to do it.

I was shown a form by a client that was sent to her by the insurance company of the person that rear-ended her on the freeway. The insurance company told her that it needed her to fill out a form that was “provided to us by Medicare.” The minute I looked at the form, I knew it had been altered.

The first question that the real form asks is if you are a Medicare beneficiary. If you say yes, it says to go onto the second section. If you say no, you are supposed to skip the rest of the form, sign, and you’re done.

The form the insurance company sent had just one line deleted. Guess which one it was? Yep, the one that said if you weren’t a Medicare beneficiary, skip to the end. By doing that, the insurance company makes the person filling the form out think that they have to complete the whole form, which asks for:

• Address
• Date of Birth
• Social Security Number
• Medicare Claim Number

All of this information can be used to get private information about you without your consent.

The company that does this is not a small one. It is an insurance company that advertises on TV and claims to give good service. The fact that you are not that company’s customer does not give it the right to try and trick you out of your personal, private information.

The best way to ensure that you are protected from this kind of treatment is to get help. If you are making a claim with an insurance company for injuries caused by someone else, consider talking to an attorney with the experience to stop this kind of fraud, and ensure that you are treated fairly.