News Coverage
2023 MEDIA
Click below to watch Frank Sztuk and Matthew Smith discuss Workers’ Comp Fraud on CBS TV.
Click below to watch Frank Sztuk discuss what you can do about Workers’ Comp Insurance Fraud on WNY Living.
Click below to watch Kevin O’Connor discuss Workers’ Comp Insurance Fraud on CEO Unplugged with Greg T. (iHeart NYC Radio).
Click below to hear Kevin O’Connor talk about Workers’ Comp Fraud on Audacy Rochester.
Click below to hear Frank Sztuk talk about how Workers’ Comp Fraud affects every New Yorker on iHeart NYC Radio.
Click below to hear Kevin O’Connor explain Workers’ Comp Insurance Fraud & how New York pays on the Building Black Biz Podcast (iHeart).
Click below to watch Frank Sztuk’s webinar with the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce and Shelli Sonstein from iHeart NYC.
Click below to hear Kevin O’Connor talk about how Workers’ Comp Fraud and ways to protect yourself on iHeart Albany Radio.
2022 MEDIA
Click below to watch Frank Sztuk on New York Live talk about ways to protect yourself from Cyber Insurance Fraud with Sara Gore.
Click below to hear Jim Potts and Frank Sztuk discuss Cyber Insurance Fraud & what you can do to protect yourself on WYRK.
Click below to hear Jim Potts discuss Cyber Insurance Fraud with Chad O’Hara on WYJB Albany.
Click below to hear Frank Sztuk talk about how Cyber Insurance Fraud can mess with your life on iHeart NYC.
2021 INTERNATIONAL FRAUD AWARENESS WEEK INTERVIEWS
The New York Alliance Against Insurance Fraud is a proud supporter of International Fraud Awareness Week, or Fraud Week which was November 14-20, 2021. Click below to hear Frank Sztuk discuss why fraud awareness is so important & what you can do to protect yourself.
2021 MEDIA
Click the links below to watch Jim Pott’s share how to protect yourself from insurance fraud on New York Live with Sara Gore and Acceso Total with Patricia Ricardo.
Click below to hear Jim Potts & Frank Sztuk share important messages about insurance fraud, and how you can help stop it on Audacy Buffalo.
Click below to hear Frank Sztuk explain why insurance fraud is stealing and the consequences on Audacy Rochester.
Click below to hear Frank Sztuk talk about insurance fraud & what New Yorkers can do to protect themselves on iHeart Radio in Albany.
2020 MEDIA
Click below to watch a special report that aired on CBS: “The Fight Against Fraud: You Are On the Frontlines.” Tiffany Aliche, Jim Potts, Matthew Smith, and Winston Berkman-Breen discuss insurance fraud & how it can impact you and your family.
Click below to see Frank Sztuk talk about alarming insurance fraud scams and trends associated with the pandemic.
Click below to hear Frank Sztuk explain how insurance fraud impacts every New Yorker.
Click below to hear Jim Potts talk about the costly crime of insurance fraud on Townsquare Media.
9 MOST-BRAZEN NY INSURANCE FRAUDSTERS CHOSEN FOR 2019
Insurance scams steal hundreds of millions of dollars in New York annually. All New Yorkers pay for fraud. Staged crashes and other automobile schemes, for example, help raise premiums that honest drivers pay.
The Legion of Shame draws higher public scrutiny of the high cost of insurance crime throughout New York. Report fraud by calling tollfree 1-844-FRAUDNY.
Airbag scam. Auto parts business owner Raymond Whelan (Cheektowaga) imported fake and unsafe airbags from China. Whelan sold more than 360 bogus airbags. Potentially hundreds of drivers have bogus airbags that may not open during crashes. Insurers also pay full price for inexpensive knockoff airbags installed during repairs.
Phony falls tripped up. Dr. Peter Kalkanis (New York City) led a fraud ring that launched $32 million of fake slip-and-fall injuries. The ring recruited hundreds of people to stage slip-and-falls and lie they were hurt. Ring members falsely blamed sidewalk cracks and other problems. Kalkanis forced indigent people to undergo surgeries to further inate false claims against innocent insurers and businesses.
Hit and done. Anthony J. DiFilippo (Niagara Falls)killed a teen in a hit-and-run incident. He then padded a claim after the teen’s grief-stricken mother drove into his garage door and damaged his car. The Niagara Falls-area man struck Ryan Fischer and sped off. Ryan’s mother later rammed and damaged his car and garage door. DiFilippo inated the car-damage claim – for the vehicle that killed Ryan.
Bouncer plot bounced. NYPD ofcer George Scparta claimed he was hurt on the job. Yet he secretly was a bouncer at a strip club. Scparta falsely received more than $638,000 of disability money.
Pill mill peril. Dr. Dante Cubanbang ran one of the largest pill mills in New York state history. He sold more than six million addictive pain pills from his Queenspainmanagement clinic for no medical reason. He wrote 19,000 medically unneeded prescriptions to purported patients. The pills went onto the streets, defrauding Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers in the process. Cubanbang received around $5.7 million in patient fees alone. Cubanbang will be federally sentenced later.
Oneatha Swinton (Staten Island). A high school principal on Staten Island falsely registered her luxury vehicles in Pennsylvania to illegally pay lower auto premiums than she would’ve in New York. Oneatha Swinton used another person’s Pennsylvania address while living and working on Staten Island. She illegally saved $3,000 a year in auto premiums by exploiting lower Pennsylvania premiums.
Painful diagnosis. Handing out nearly 4 million addictive pain pills to patients who didn’t need them them, Dr. Lazar Feygin ooded the streets in a $6.3-million insurance scheme. Feygin also subjected patients to unneeded medical tests and physical therapy fraudulently billed to Medicare and Medicaid.
Clinic con. James “Jay” and Jeffrey Spina (Middletown)ran medical clinics that stole $80 million from auto insurers, Medicare and health insurers in bogus claims. The clinics double-billed, billed for phantom treatments and forged medical records.
Deadly deceit. Broke and aimless from a backgammon addiction, Rod Covlin strangled his wealthy wife Shele Danishefsky in her Manhattan luxury apartment for $1.6 million of life insurance, plus other assets. Covlin made Shele’s death look like an accidental fall in her bathtub. He received 25 years to life in state prison.
2019 MEDIA
Jim Potts spreads the word about the costs of insurance fraud on Entercom Buffalo. Click any of the three audios below to hear his interviews on KISS 98.5, WBEN and Buffalo Means Business.
See Jim Potts talk about how insurance fraud impacts every aspect of New Yorkers’ lives on Western New York Living.
Click below to hear Frank Sztuk explain how insurance fraud impacts every New Yorker on iHeart Radio.
See Jim Potts talk about the costly crime of insurance fraud. He discusses the costs of auto fraud, painkiller fraud and workers' compensation fraud.
Click below to hear two true stories about auto insurance fraud and workers' compensation fraud told by Jim Potts. Both aired on Entercom NY.
2018 MEDIA
Click below to watch Jim Quiggle & Rob Kent discuss Painkiller Fraud on WABC-TV’s Weekend Showcase.
Click below to see Jim Potts & Rob Kent discuss Painkiller Fraud & solutions to this problem on Western New York Living.
Click below to hear Jim Potts & Rob Kent discuss Painkiller Fraud with Joe Bartlett on iHeart.
Click below to hear Jim Potts & Rob Kent talk about Painkiller Fraud on Albany Broadcasting.
See Jim Potts discuss the impact of Painkiller Fraud on Western New York Living. Click below.
Click below to listen to a NYAAIF consumer podcast featuring Jim Potts discussing painkiller fraud.
OVERCOMING ADDICTION
There are now more than 100 opioid overdose deaths per day in the U.S. Still, some people manage to break that cycle of addiction by using apps and websites to find community, and to get sober.
Click below to hear Ben Brock Johnson, host of the WBUR and Reddit podcast "Endless Thread," talk with one such man from upstate New York.
Senior Scam Alert: Hang Up On cold callers exploiting new medicare cards to steal identity
Insurance fraud alliance warns seniors to stay alert to rapidly spreading phone scams.
ALBANY, April 24, 2018 — Just hang up. That’s the advice a New York anti-fraud alliance urges for seniors who receive cold calls from scammers trying to steal their identities by exploiting new Medicare cards.
Medicare is mailing new cards with random characters instead of SSNs to nearly 60 million seniors, starting in April. The security measure can prevent medical and financial ID theft by swindlers who steal seniors’ SSNs from the cards.
Yet con artists are cold calling seniors about the new cards, trying to steal their identities. Swindlers trying to pirate seniors’ SSN, bank account numbers and credit card information, warns the New York Alliance Against Insurance Fraud.
That information lets scammers steal a senior’s medical and financial identities. The ripoffs can ruin their credit, drain their bank and Medicare accounts, and jeopardize their financial wellbeing.
Callers pretend they’re from Medicare, and request seniors’ personal identifiers. Among the pitches:
You must pay for your new Medicare card now or else you’ll lose your Medicare benefits.;
Medicare is updating its files and needs your bank and credit-card numbers.;
Medicare is confirming your Social Security number before you can receive your new card.; and
Medicare needs your bank information to send you a refund on your old card.
Watch for emails and texts delivering similar pitches.
Scammers prey on confusion about the new Medicare cards. Three of four seniors know little or nothing about the cards, an AARP survey says.
Six of 10 seniors think they must pay a fee. Half might not question a call from a claimed Medicare rep.
The New York alliance offers this advice:
Just hang up. Medicare won’t phone you about the cards. They’re also free, and nor do seniors have to report or verify info to Medicare.;
Sign up for an alert that Medicare has mailed your new card; and
Destroy your old Medicare card when your new card arrives.
The new Medicare cards will better protect your identity without an SSN. With common-sense safeguards, you can let the cards do their work well.
NYAAIF is an alliance of insurance companies doing business in New York. NYAAIF was created in 1999 to educate consumers about the cost of insurance fraud, and help consumers avoid becoming victims. Visit www.fraudny.org.
CONTACT: James Quiggle, 202-393-7331; jamesq@InsuranceFraud.org
Jim Quiggle, Spokesperson, NYAAIF
STEER CLEAR OF PAINKILLER SCAM, N.Y. INSURERS URGE
Consumer campaign advises residents, reveals how insurance fraud spreads addictive pain pills in New York
NEW YORK, N.Y., May 14, 2018 — Insurers are alerting New Yorkers how to avoid abusing addictive painkillers and falling victim to dishonest medical providers who make powerful prescription drugs too easily available. It’s a statewide outreach campaign by the New York Alliance Against Insurance Fraud. Addiction and overdoses from prescription painkillers have reached dangerous levels in New York. Illicit profits from insurance scams are placing unneeded pain pills into vulnerable New Yorkers’ hands, helping fuel a statewide drug problem.
“Painkiller fraud is a prescription for tragedy,” goes the campaign theme. NYAAIF is targeting major cities with television ads, radio spots, billboards and social media. The campaign ads air in New York, Buffalo, Rochester and Albany. They run through June.
“Who thought these small pills could almost destroy my life,” a drug victim asks in an NYAAIF television spot. “I went from killing pain to almost killing myself. What I didn’t know was insurance fraud made getting these drugs easier.”
Watch for pharmacies that fill your prescriptions for fewer than the number of days or pills listed on the prescription, advises a special online report on painkiller fraud. Also, avoid insurance scams that traffic in pain pills. The tempting lure of profits disappears when you’re arrested and jailed, NYAAIF’s campaign warns.
Use pain pills only the way your doctor advises — and lock the pills in a cabinet at home, an NYAAIF consumer podcast also urges New Yorkers. Medical providers and pharmacists are getting rich from illegally providing unneeded painkillers to vulnerable consumers.
More consumer advice and scam alerts will spread virally on NYAAIF’s Facebook page and Twitter feed. Arrests and convictions of painkiller offenders also will drive home the consumer messages.
Painkiller fraud costs consumers plus auto, workers comp and health insurers tens of millions of dollars each year in New York, estimates NYAAIF.
“It’s a very personal issue. This a very human, human problem with somebody getting overprescribed,” NYAAIF chair Jim Potts says in the podcast “That’s just a terrible, terrible way to become an addict.”
NYAAIF is an alliance of more than 100 insurers in New York that have come together to educate consumers in the state about insurance fraud and its impact in New York
Jim is on the Executive Board of the New York Alliance Against Insurance Fraud and has been featured in numerous informative media interviews regarding insurance fraud. See below for those interviews.
2017 MEDIA
Click below to hear Dennis Jay explain the cost of insurance fraud to all New Yorkers in this interview with Joe Bartlett of WOR, New York City.
2016 MEDIA
Click below to hear Dennis Jay explain the cost of insurance fraud to all New Yorkers in this interview with Joe Bartlett of WOR, New York City.
Contact: Elijah Mercer
NYAAIF@insurancefraud.org
202-250-3250
VIDEO CONTEST CHALLENGES STUDENTS TO FIGHT FRAUD IN NEW YORK
Competition aims to educate Empire State consumers about insurance crime
NEW YORK, N.Y., Nov. 16, 2016 — Insurers are urging students to create a video that convincingly shows how all New Yorkers pay for insurance fraud. It’s a video contest sponsored by the New York Alliance Against Insurance Fraud — with cash prizes.
Undergrad or grad students will create a short video showing how insurance fraud damages New Yorkers — and how to fight back. It will be two minutes max, and geared for social sharing.
Winner receives $1,000; runner-up gets $500. Videos are due February 20, 2017 @ 11:59pm. Students can sign up here: http://www.fraudny.com/video-contest/.
Student filmmakers should motivate New Yorkers of all ages with any of these consumer messages:
Upstate. Downstate. Everyone is a victim!
Insurance fraud — the crime you pay for
Insurance fraud hurts everyone.
Students will hone their creative skills — and do a public service for New Yorkers everywhere. Students can be full time or part time.
Winners will be announced online in February. The filmmaker(s) will receive their awards during NYAAIF’s annual meeting in New York City on March 8, 2017.
NYAAIF is an alliance of 104 insurance companies in New York. NYAAIF was created in 1999 to educate consumers about the cost of insurance fraud and help consumers avoid becoming victims. For more information, visit www.fraudny.org.
