Tremendous Medical Insurance Scam

March 18 -- It's one of the largest medical insurance scams in history, according to the FBI — involving thousands of healthy people across the country.

Recruiters are bringing would-be patients to Southern California, where they are paid to undergo surgeries they don't need in order to cheat insurance companies.

"It's truly a nationwide scam. We have patients who have traveled from 46 of the 50 states to Southern California to have these surgeries," said FBI agent Tim Delaney.

Using hidden cameras, Primetime decided to see how easy it is to get recruited.

Some recruiters reportedly look for patients in nail salons, in the neighborhood south of Los Angeles nicknamed "Little Saigon," and in Houston, Texas.

So Jamie Nguyen, a local ABC producer who speaks Vietnamese, began calling Houston salons asking about cosmetic surgery.

Soon, she was told to show up at one salon. She went with a photographer — wearing hidden cameras.

Insurance for Cosmetic Surgery?

At the salon, Nguyen met with a woman named Kimberly and told her she'd like to get a nose job and surgery to reshape her eyes. Kimberly told her she could get cosmetic surgery via her insurance company, Nguyen said.

On the video from the hidden camera, Kimberly is seen telling Nguyen, "You don't pay your cash money. Now you understand? They take the money from the insurance."

Nguyen says she was incredulous, but didn't say anything at the time. "I've never heard of insurance companies paying for cosmetic surgery," Nguyen told ABCNEWS' John Quinones.

But before she could get her cosmetic surgery, Kimberly asked Nguyen to fly to California for a medical procedure she doesn't need: a colonoscopy.

"But we can't pretend that I got my colonoscopy? We really have to do the colonoscopy?" Nguyen is heard asking on the tape.

Kimberly tells Nguyen she has to have the operation and explains why. "The insurance," says Kimberly. "They send to the insurance. They collect that money from your insurance to, to do your nose, your eye."