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FRAUDSTERS NOW KILLING EACH
OTHER
By Chuck Wells
You know about insurance fraud.
It is when someone turns in bogus claims to insurance companies
in order to make some easy bucks. After all, it is just the big
insurance companies paying so who cares? It costs each of us
about $140 per year paid through our insurance policies to pay
for fraud. Well, it is getting so bad in New York City that the
fraudsters are tripping over each other to make an honest buck.
Some guys in Brooklyn were staging a phony accident by loading
up a car with people, driving down the street, slamming on the
brakes so the car behind them would rear-end them, and then all
claiming neck injuries. The fraudsters also hired some
bystanders who would act as “witnesses” so when they sue the
insurance company of the innocent person driving behind them,
they could collect big bucks. But something went wrong. It seems
that they set up their “accident” on a street that was already
being used by some other guys who also liked to set up these
phony accidents and they were not pleased. As the “witnesses”
were standing around the accident scene, someone started
shooting at them. One man was killed and another critically
wounded. The shooter got away. Apparently there were no
witnesses to the shooting.
In Sacramento, California, funeral director Melvin Lincoln was
sentenced for defrauding his insurance company by faking his own
death and that of his wife to collect life insurance money. He
was dying to get some easy bucks (guess funeral business was
slow) but was tripped up when the insurance company found out
that he renewed his driver’s license after being dead.
This is a good one. A Los Angeles lawyer was arrested for
insurance fraud and then collected on his disability insurance
policy ($85,000 worth) because he was not able to go back to
work. The lawyer said that he was allergic to courthouses for
two years because of his arrest. He says that his exposure to
the criminal justice system now causes him stress, mood swings,
and he gets sick. The insurance company is now trying to get the
$85,000 back they paid him.
WARNING LABEL ON YOUR HAMBURGER?
New York Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, the guy who proposed the
current moronic legislation that bans talking on hand-held cell
phones, is proposing a new law that would require restaurants to
disclose nutritional information on anything you order. Donut
and cookie shops with 10 or more locations would also have to
tell you how much ugly, cholesterol-laden, heart stopping fat is
in that donut or cookie when you buy it.
Our legislators say we need to have this nutritional information
because we are getting too obese (lard-asses) and they want to
protect us from ourselves. That’s right; you are a dumb, fat
slob and seeing that a Big Mac has 590 calories will keep you
from eating it now because you will be able to read it on the
greasy wrapper. Just like you didn’t know cigarettes were bad
for you until they put the warning on the packs.
Margaret Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for
Science in the Public Interest (really) says: “You can do all
the nutrition education in the world, (but) it’s not going to
help people if you don’t provide nutritional information at the
point of decision.” In other words, we need help.
Federal labeling laws were designed by our legislators to change
our eating behavior. That’s right. Not only are you a fat slob,
but you have a behavior problem our politicians want to correct.
However, since the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990
(really again) was instituted, sales of potato chips, cookies,
and other “junk food” that makes us fat, has not gone down. So
much for changing our “behavior” with nutritional information.
Maybe higher taxes would help or a ban on junk food advertising.
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