Insurance Fraud is a Felony

12 This type of fraud can involve dishonest auto body and repair shops and/or insurers who may employ a variety of illegal or questionable techniques including: • Reporting parts of vehicles as damaged or lost when in fact they were not damaged or lost prior to the shop receiving the vehicle. • Charging an excessive final cost as compared to the original estimate of damage. • Listing charges for repairs on the billing statement that were not authorized. • Billing for Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) parts, when after-market or salvaged parts were used. • Billing for OEM parts when bondo is used to make repairs. • Falsely reporting vehicles as stolen, burned or vandalized in order to collect insurance monies or obtain repairs for previous damage. It is always important for the consumer to carefully review all paperwork from an auto body repair shop in order to protect against potential fraud. Automobile Property