Insurance companies are realizing the power of social media, especially when content that is damaging to their case is posted online.

Consider the following situation…..someone takes an insurance policy in the amount of two million dollars on their million dollar car. Suddenly the car is involved in an accident, and the owner files a claim. Unfortunately, one insurance company turned to the internet, and found damaging evidence against the owner, enough to deny the claim. The story was told by CBS news in February.

Because of a YouTube video, the insurance company had enough evidence that this was a fraudulent situation and there was, in fact, no accident as the driver claimed  – this was done purposefully and methodically.

Before social media, insurance companies would often times use private investigators to look into a person’s activities – for example, a workman’s comp claim for someone who is seen by a private investigator doing yard work or other similar activity. This task has gotten much easier now that people are inclined to share every detail of their personal lives. This is not always good news for those filing claims, but this social media development has been gold for insurance companies who are monitoring social media.