Am I Under Surveillance? An Overview
What Kind of Surveillance Do Insurance Companies Use?
If you’ve filed a claim for individual disability insurance, you will likely be under surveillance at least once.
Insurance companies use a variety of tactics to surveil claimants. For example:
- Monitoring your online activities, including social media;
- Stakeout operations and tailing;
- Contacting friends or family members to try and gather information about you;
- GPS and cell phone tracking;
- Using drones or stingrays;
- Pretexting;
- Conducting an interview at your house; and
- Using questions on claim forms to try and learn your schedule.
When Are Insurance Companies Watching?
Furthermore, there are certain times surveillance may occur more often. For example:
- During holidays;
- On the claimant’s birthday;
- Over weekends;
- Near the end of fiscal quarters; and
- Any time they have a chance to catch a claimant involved in physical activity (based on information provided by the claimant).
These are popular times because they are often scenarios where a claimant may push him or herself more than normal, especially in the context of physical activity. The point of this surveillance is to “catch” you doing activities that undercut your disability claim. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for the insurance companies to take things out of context.
Using surveillance is not necessarily illegal. However, sometimes insurance companies cross boundaries. Understandably, it can be alarming to think about being under surveillance. And sometimes, repeated surveillance can mean your insurance company is targeting your claim for denial.
For this reason, it is important to be aware. An experienced disability insurance attorney can help if you feel your claim may be targeted for denial. Therefore, if you have questions, please feel free to contact one of our attorneys directly.
