From an ethical or moral viewpoint, what if any difference exists between hard fraud and soft fraud? Justify your answer.

The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud reports that insurance fraud in the U.S. is an $80 billion-a-year business. They divide fraud into two categories—hard fraud and soft fraud. Hard fraud occurs when crooks set out to deliberately fake an accident, injury, theft, or other loss to collect money illegally from insurance companies. Soft fraud occurs when normally honest people fudge the truth to an insurance company to reduce a premium, cover a deductible, or get a larger settlement. They justify their actions by saying that everyone does it, insurance costs too much, or the insurance companies won’t notice a small amount. Examples of soft fraud include

• A car owner includes previous damage to the car after an accident so insurance will cover that repair

• A body shop owner inflates the cost of repair so the customer doesn’t have to pay the insurance deductible

• Following a burglary, the homeowner adds items to the list of stolen property that really aren’t missing to obtain a larger settlement

• A doctor submits to an insurer a more serious diagnosis of a patient than actually exists in order to receive a larger reimbursement

• A person who slips and falls at a store exaggerates the injury in order to obtain money from the store’s insurance company