More than $90 billion dollars of disaster losses were covered by insurers in 2021, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau estimates that about 10% of those funds were lost to post-disaster fraud.

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As individual homeowners are disproportionately targeted for these kinds of crimes, many of the fraud-avoiding recommendations provided are tailored accordingly, but the NICB does offer a number of more broadly applicable tips on how to avoid falling victim to such traps, as well, including contacting your insurance company prior to contacting any outside experts or contractors and to be wary of any non-governmental party claiming FEMA endorsement.

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You can read more about these issues and find additional post-disaster fraud detection tips here.