Souped-Up Street-Racing Cars Often Tools in Insurance Fraud.

The popular film "The Fast and The Furious" depicts a world of youthful street racers who are able to afford expensive import/sports cars, often customized with costly accessories. In real life, these racers often resort to insurance fraud to obtain the funds to buy these pricey vehicles or modifications, such as high-performance engines and racing tires, according to the National Insurance Grime Bureau.

"The popularity of high-valued import cars and customized accessories that are the heart of street racing has helped fuel a surge of vehicle thefts and insurance fraud," said Robert M. Bryant, president and chief executive officer of the National Insurance Grime Bureau, a nonprofit organization funded by insurance companies to fight fraud and vehicle theft.

Bureau investigators attend street race shows and regularly find stolen cars and evidence of insurance crimes, Bryant said. "We generally recover stolen vehicles and component parts at every race," he said.

False auto-theft reports, staged accidents and phony vandalism claims are among the scams used by street racers to defraud insurers, the bureau reports.

Performance shops, which install the stolen engines and transmissions, are often involved in these scams, Bryant said. "Some even instruct a racer to tell their insurance company that the desired piece of equipment has been stolen and go so far as to furnish bogus receipts to substantiate the phony claim," Bryant said.

Even when there are legitimate thefts, these shops may furnish false receipts to pad the cost of the claim, he added.

"The street-racing scene may be entertaining on screen, but the fancy cars and accessories cost you money in the form of higher auto insurance premiums," Bryant said.