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A special thanks to those of you who choose to go both ways:
Both ways that is when it comes to subscribing not only to The John Cooke Insurance Fraud Report but to the all-new The John Cooke Financial Fraud Report. Although we just hit the streets three weeks ago with our Premiere Issue (August/September), we already have subscribers in 22 states and Canada. Not too shabby for a fledgling.
The moment the JCIFR gets shipped off to the printers, we go into a metamorphosis, emerging as the publishers of the JCFFR. Suddenly, instead of thinking in terms of insurance scam artists – the paper accidents, the slip ‘n fallers, the bogus life insurance claims – we change our focus to credit card scams, check kiting schemes, mortgage lending frauds, etc. And then something extremely interesting happens: we find that some of the crooks are the exact same people.
The experience reinforces something we’ve said before – and will probably say many times to come: There are no single line criminals. Nobody, but nobody, wakes up in the morning and makes a conscious decision to go out and defraud Blue Cross-Blue Shield, but to deal honestly in all other facets of his (or her) life. Crooks just don’t think that way. In fact, at the same time the bogus medical insurance papers are being filed, there’s no doubt that other things are going on. Our scam artist may be kiting a few checks, participating in a credit scam or two, keeping two separate sets of records for each business he’s involved in and slowly leaching money from his trusting Grandma’s bank account.
In future issues of each publication, you will begin to see some cross-over information. We’ll be telling you some of the things going on in your investigative neighbor’s back yard: things that will assist as we chase the same crooks. Communication and education, those two words that we’ve been stressing ever since we produced the first issue of the JCIFR in May 1994, should not stop at the borders of insurance fraud. Indeed, maintaining open lines of communication with our sister industries can be helpful to both of our causes. And learning from each other can also further our individual agendas. With this thought in mind, we’re in the planning stages of some pretty exciting things. Stay tuned – each of you is a very important part of our loop.
August through November is the time of the year that I rack up way too many airline hours and way too few sleep hours. Many of industry’s national and regional conventions take place in the fall months, so I’ll probably be running into quite a few of you. Please take the time to say hello and share a few words, thoughts or ideas. While the physical work of putting the JCFRs together may occur in California, the content and tone of both papers is defined by the wants, needs and suggestions we hear from people throughout the areas we reach.
When our readers talk, we listen.
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