Many Americans are faking their death to receive their life insurance money early by forging death certificates, police reports, and hospital reports. Joseph B. Treaster, a journalist for The New York Times, explains how this negatively affects the life insurance companies and how they are trying to end this growing issue. Ever since life insurance was invented people have been trying to collect life insurance policies without actually dying. But recently a new twist has emerged, as more and more Americans Insurance companies extend their global reach to developing countries, they are aggressively selling policies in countries with less rigorous standards for record-keeping and documentation. Which makes it easier to fake your own death and claim your insurance money without being caught. The stereotypical con artist, investigators say, is a third world native who has lived in the United States for a few years, has bought life insurance and decides to take a trip back home where the “death accident” occurs. Another way to get life insurance money without “killing” yourself off and retain your true identity is to create an insurance policy for an imaginary friend and list yourself as the beneficiary. Then, using forged documents you can tearfully report the death of your fictional loved one and receive the insurance money. In California for example, the number of fake death claims has more than tripled these past couple years, and the Insurance Services Office states that $85 billion last year alone has gone to policy holders who have faked their death. Gary L. Dunn, a ReliaStar Insurance executive said, “We believe that being aggressive is a deterrent to people fooling around with our company”. Starting in September, insurers will get a new software tactic to detect fraud called NetMap. This software is developed by Alta Analytics and it can quickly scan 135 million insurance claims at once for suspicious similarities in names, social security numbers, and phone numbers. NetMap will cost up to $500,000, but it will be completely worth it in the long run to hopefully put an end to life insurance fraud.
Psychology Behind Death
Faking your own death or creating a death hoaxes can cause more damage than stealing money from life insurance companies, it can cause emotional stress and depression for the people who love and care about you. Death can make everything else in our lives insignificant, it forces us to focus on our present life and stop worrying about the past and future. Terror management Theory suggests that a large part of all human behavior is generated by unconscious fear of death. This fear generates a fundamental unease and anxiety that can take over your mind while still in the grieving phase of healing. So by faking your death or creating a death hoax you are putting others in a state of mental shock and grief. It’s selfish and childish to pretend you’re dead to escape your problems, as I mentioned earlier it is better to admit to your wrong doings and accept your punishment than to be forever on the run.
If you are seeking assistance relating to grief counseling be sure to contact your family doctor for a medical professionals help. You're not alone and you can overcome this difficult situation with support from your family and doctor.
Personal Insight
Faking my own death has never crossed my mind, and it is not a decision that I would ever make. I have grown up with the mindset that you get what you deserve and you can’t run away from your problems. I now understand why people decide that faking their death is the best option, because it is the easiest and most cowardly option they have to solve their temporary problems. They are too spineless to come clean and admit to their mistakes and would rather hide and run away than handle their consequences. Fraudulency, collecting life insurance money illegally, and high crimes are the most common reasons people flee and fake their deaths because they have some of the longest jail times. You can’t get jail time for originating a death hoax because it’s your freedom of speech, but it is highly frowned upon. It’s not fair to the celebrity that you’re hoaxing to have to defend themselves and it is not fair to their fans either, as I mentioned earlier death can cause large amounts of anxiety and unneeded depression for the grievers. I hope that the media learns to fact check their information sources, so that the public has someone to rely on to communicate the truth. Death is nothing to joke about and should be taken seriously, life throws many obstacles at us on a daily basis, that fake deaths and death hoaxes should be something in the past.