Social-networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace have become the go-to places where employers, college admissions officers and divorce lawyers can do background checks. And now insurance companies are exploiting the free, easily accessible websites. Such sites have become the latest tools in detecting fraud, which the industry says costs the U.S. as much as $80 billion a year and accounts for 3% to 10% of total annual healthcare spending. Investigators who once followed people with cameras now sit behind desks mining databases and searching Facebook.
