Bangalore: Everyone these days is a victim to insurance fraud. It is one of the oldest types of frauds recorded. Stories like people who received millions after a car accident and stuff are much talked about. There are two types of insurance fraud - seller fraud and buyer fraud. Seller fraud is when the seller of a policy takes control over the usual process, in order to maximize his profit. Buyer fraud is when the buyer manipulates the whole process in order to claim more cash, than he is actually allowed to. Types of Seller Fraud- * Ghost Companies - These are those illegal companies that issue the policies, accept policies and perform all the related actions from policyholders, but their underwriting the policy against the law and they don't even exist. They are a group of scam artists who approach customers with less knowledge on insurance and sell them false policies. They stay lucky until someone from the family/client's associate tries to file a claim on the policy. * Premium Theft - We see less of premium thefts these days as companies have moved to direct deposit models. Here the insurance representative accepts premiums, but doesn't submit them to the company underwriting the policy, hence making the policy invalid and runs away with the money. * Churning - It is that situation where the insurance representative influences the clients but ends up benefiting himself. He advises the customer to cancel, renew and open new policies with an intention to gain a huge amount of commission. * Over or Under Coverage - This is almost similar to churning. Here an insurance representative persuades his clients to buy coverage they don't need, or sells a lesser policy and represents it as a complete policy. Either ways, he gets benefited by not meetng his client's needs as he maximizes commissions or ensures that the policy is sold!