SIU Today Summer 2022 - 6

MAGIC TRICKS, MISREPRESENTATION,
AND THE FRAUD INVESTIGATION
By IASIU Editorial Committee
As insurance fraud investigators, we often pride ourselves in our
ability to detect deception. In fact, we spend many years trying
to perfect this skill. Commonly, we think of detecting deception
during face-to-face interviews with a would-be fraudster. Detecting
deception gets much more difficult when we go toe-to-toe with those
that have " more experience " in telling lies and who intentionally lay
out complex mazes of misrepresentations and half-truths to support
their unsubstantiated claims. These types of fraudsters go out of
their way to build the illusion that their character is likeable, their
credibility is trustworthy, and their stories about how the claim
happened are believable. You might even say that they are skilled in
manipulation, misdirection, and deception.
There's an interesting parallel to this type of fraudster and the
techniques used by a professional magician. Magic tricks only
work when the audience's attention has been misdirected and
the magician controls what happens next. Magic, then, can be
described as the art of manipulation, misdirection, and deception.
Is that so different from insurance fraud?
6 SIU TODAY | SUMMER 2022
The IASIU Editorial Committee recently had the opportunity to
speak with one of our members, George Ripley, an SIU professional
with over 21 years in law enforcement. George has one other
interesting qualification; he is also a professional magician.
We decided to pick his brain about the parallels between fraud
and magic. We wanted to learn more from George on how to
become better at detecting deception as fraud investigators if we
understood how closely it is related to magic.
IASIU George, please tell us a bit about yourself.
George Ripley:
I have been employed with Donegal Insurance Group for
approximately 4 years and I am the SIU Manager. I manage
insurance fraud investigations and the company's anti-fraud
program in this role. Before that, I was employed with the
York City Police Department in York, PA for 21 years. In
that role, I was a Homicide Detective for 13 years and my
SIU Today Summer 2022

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