What happens if an insurance claim is fraud?

Insurance laws vary from state to state as with most laws. Generally speaking, if you file a fraudulent claim there will be penalties including but not limited to non-payment of the claim, suit by the company to make you pay the money back plus expenses and fees, state or federal fines, and state or federal prison time. More and more is being done by law enforcement and insurance companies to prevent and penalize those committing insurance fraud. The insurance company is not the final payer of fraudulent claims but we all are. Insurance is similar to a co-op as it is taking risk from one person and spreading it among many people to make the risk more affordable. One person cannot pay the loss if their home burns down so 1,000,000 may have to pay $500 each into a fund to pay for the number of people who have fires or whatever. This is insurance. For full disclosure, I own and operate a small Independent Insurance Agency in Georgia and have for the past 22 years. I also worked for a direct writer for the 3 years before that.