To be honest, whenever I’ve written articles about insurance surveillance, the feeling of” in one ear and out the other” eventually stopped me from writing about it. The general feeling seemed to be: “I’m not worried about surveillance because I don’t do anything wrong.” This is exactly the wrong attitude to have about it, since surveillance can be interpreted anyway the insurance company wants to.
I don’t think that any one of us can actually imagine the extent and scope of surveillance technology insurance companies have today. I received an interesting call recently about an insured with approximately $20,000/month in benefits who was duped by call girls, employed by a surveillance company. These girls actually have sex, and then give the recording to the insurance company. Apparently, insurers are not above hiring prostitutes, advertised on various social media, to lure insureds into situations that could be alleged as “work capacity.”
Come on, we’re all adults here. The kind of sexual activity that goes on these days could be interpreted as work capacity. It happens, and the insurance company is taking advantage of the information.
This situation might seem hilarious until you realize what the financial reserve would be (benefits lost) for a $20,000/month benefit on a lifetime policy. Then, it’s not so funny. Over $2M maybe? That’s some expensive date.
Years ago, I had a client diagnosed with depression after his wife died whose claim was closed when a surveillance team caught him having sex in the woods. Other surveillance took place on top of a neighbor’s roof while the female insured was sunbathing topless. Today, this situation is indeed “rudimentary my dear Watson!” The type of surveillance tools and equipment far surpasses the old “parking in front of your house with a camera hanging out the window.”
As far as I know insureds can be recorded from more than 500 yards away. Your cell phone pings off towers, it has GPS, and nothing is ever really deleted. Devices can be put under your car as well. Years ago when I interviewed surveillance investigators, they told me that although surveillance devices were illegal, they did it anyway, and just didn’t disclose it to the insurance company. Nice.
My point here is that sexual activity isn’t protected as a privacy issue and insurance surveillance is taking advantage of setting people up using sex as an “incident.”
Therefore, insureds who are accustomed to using prostitutes, or social media to solicit sexual partners should be aware that your insurance company knows who you are. In fact, I’d offer that some government agency has IP addresses tagged for those who visit Internet porn anyway. It’s not a safe place to be with a disability claim.
So while you may be disregarding this surveillance article as well as the 500 others I’ve written as bunk please be aware that you have no idea where your insurance company is lurking and that includes SEX.
