How These Private Investigators Catch Workers' Comp Fraudsters in the Act
Bob Kiehn is hired by insurance companies to track down shameless con artists.
— -- Workers’ compensation programs are meant to help those who are severely disabled, but some attempt to game the system by faking an injury to collect disability payments, thinking they will never be caught.
Insurance fraud is typically very hard to catch than these cases, so private investigators like Bari Kroll and Bob Kiehn are hired by insurance companies to catch fraudsters on tape.
“The secret to some my success is being a woman. It’s still pretty uncommon for people to think women are private investigators.” Kroll said. “This job isn’t for everyone. But it is for me, because I’m OK waiting for something to happen.”
Kiehn, who is also an ABC News consultant, brought ABC News “20/20” along as observers on a mission to capture video of a farmer suspected of fleecing an insurance company. The farmer claimed that injuries from a car accident caused him difficulty with daily farming.
Kiehn said he was looking to capture “Anything he does that makes him look like he’s working.”
After four hours of surveillance Kiehn was able to film the farmer lifting a heavy object into his truck.
“It’s something for us to start building a case on.” Kiehn said. “You have to have a creative solution… [fraudsters] think they’re five steps ahead of us.”
Kiehn is the founder and president of National SIU, a company that specializes in insurance fraud investigations, and watch him in action in the video player above. Watch the full story on ABC News' "20/20" on Friday, Oct. 28 at 10 p.m. ET.