When you pay your monthly car insurance premium, you may wonder why its so high, and whether you are being scammed. In fact, however, the culprits are usually the people with the insurance, and not the companies providing it. Want to know why? Here are some of the most common auto insurance ripoffs:

How about someone conveniently making a claim just as a major part is about to wear out? For example, just as the car's engine hits the 150,000 mile mark, an accident occurs that requires the engine to be replaced.

Some people will intentionally arrange to be in an accident. The crash is a low speed affair, but the driver claims that they have sustained major injuries and the insurance company has to pay out thousands in medical expenses. The scammer may even go so far as to claim that they have suffered a permanent disability that will keep them from ever working again.

There have even been reported cases where the person in the accident will tell their auto insurance that several other people were in the car and were also injured. Then the friends will settle for fees as well and give the insurance holder a percentage.

What may seem like a relatively minor scam, but can actually run into serious money is the person who, wanting to make sure that parts are replaced and not just repaired, will intentionally cause additional damage after the accident.

The last type of car insurance fraud that we will discuss is the type that comes from the auto repairer. If you've ever wondered why different repair shops will provide drastically different quotes for the price? It's because the money isn't coming out of your pocket, so they are pretty much free to provide whatever price they choose.

There are two different techniques that the car insurance companies use to combat the scams. The first is through the use of deductibles. Because each person knows that at least some of the cost will be coming out of pocket, it insures that you only use the insurance when absolutely necessary. Also, when you use your insurance, you price goes up to be insured and you wont get a cheap car insurance quote for up to 7 years from an accident. The last way they combat fraud is by making it a criminal offense that will put you in jail if caught coming fraud.

In the end, though, the people who are hurt most by fraud are the innocent people who do nothing wrong. They are the ones who have to make up for fraud losses in the form of higher premiums. Because every auto insurance quote has some amount factored in for fraud.