Florida Insurance Fraud Reporting: How to File and Your Protections

To report insurance fraud in Florida, file with the Department of Financial Services’ Criminal Investigations Division. You have three channels: the online portal at first.fldfs.com, the statewide fraud hotline at 1-800-378-0445, or a written report mailed to the division’s Tallahassee headquarters.¹ How far your report goes depends almost entirely on the evidence you assemble before you file, and Florida law protects reporters who act in good faith from being sued.²

Gather Your Evidence First

The Criminal Investigations Division receives thousands of referrals. The ones that trigger an actual investigation are the ones that give investigators something concrete. Vague suspicions tend to close at the screening stage.

Before you contact the division, pull together as much of the following as you can:

The suspect’s full name, address, business name, and contact information.
The type of insurance involved (auto, homeowners, health, workers’ compensation, or another line), along with any policy or claim number.
A chronological account of what happened, with specific dates and locations.
Names and contact details of anyone who witnessed the conduct or took part in it.
Supporting documents: photographs, police reports, billing statements, text messages, emails, or anything else that backs up your account.

You don’t need to prove fraud yourself. That is the investigator’s job. But the more raw material you hand over, the easier it is for the division to decide a case exists.

The Three Ways to File

Online

The portal at first.fldfs.com is the fastest route. The system asks you to identify your role (citizen, attorney, law enforcement, or an insurance company’s special investigations unit) and walks you through the fields needed for a complete submission. You can attach supporting documents directly.¹

By Phone

Call the statewide Insurance Fraud Hotline at 1-800-378-0445. A call makes sense when the situation is complicated enough that you want to talk it through with a person, though the operator will usually ask you to send documents through another channel.

By Mail

Send a written report and copies of your documents to the division’s headquarters at 200 East Gaines Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0324. Mailed reports take longer to process. Use this route when you have extensive physical documentation that would be hard to digitize.

Legal Protections When You Report

Florida law gives reporters two separate protections.

Your Identity Stays Confidential

All documents, reports, and evidence tied to an active fraud investigation are confidential and exempt from Florida’s public records law. The protection lasts as long as the investigation is active, meaning the division is still pursuing it in good faith with the possibility of administrative, civil, or criminal action. After an investigation closes, portions of the records remain exempt if disclosure would reveal a confidential source, jeopardize another active case, or compromise someone’s safety.²

You Can’t Be Sued for a Good-Faith Report

If you report suspected fraud without malice, fraud, or bad faith, you cannot be sued for defamation or any other civil claim based on what you reported. The immunity covers reports made to the Department of Financial Services, law enforcement, the National Insurance Crime Bureau, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.² The qualifier matters: filing a report you know to be false, to harm someone, strips the protection.

What Happens After You File

Every referral goes through an initial screening to decide whether there’s enough to open a criminal investigation. Many reports close at this stage for lack of specifics, which is why the evidence-gathering step carries so much weight.

Reports that pass screening are assigned to a sworn law enforcement investigator who gathers more evidence, conducts interviews, and may issue subpoenas. The outcome can range from closure for insufficient evidence, to administrative penalties such as fines or professional license revocation, to a criminal referral to a state attorney. If the state attorney declines to prosecute, the division has to be told why within 60 days.²

Don’t expect updates. The same confidentiality rules that shield the investigation also keep the division from reporting back to you. Most reporters hear nothing until an arrest or a case closure.

Florida does run an anti-fraud reward program that pays up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of someone committing insurance fraud, including employers who illegally skip workers’ compensation coverage.³ The payment is discretionary rather than guaranteed, but it’s a real incentive for anyone willing to assemble a solid report.

When to Report Somewhere Else Too

The state division is the right starting point for most cases, but some situations warrant a parallel report.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau, a nonprofit that works with insurers and law enforcement, is useful when you suspect a scheme that crosses state lines or involves an organized operation. You can submit a tip at nicb.org or by calling 800-835-6422, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central time.⁴ Tips can be anonymous, though leaving out your contact information limits what investigators can do with them. The NICB does not handle complaints about an insurer’s rates or customer service.

Some insurance fraud crosses into federal jurisdiction, chiefly schemes involving Medicare, Medicaid, or the use of the mail or electronic communications to carry out the fraud.⁵⁶ You can still start with the Criminal Investigations Division, which coordinates with federal agencies when a case belongs there. If an insurance scheme also involves tax violations, those can be reported directly to the IRS.⁷

1
Florida Department of Financial Services. Criminal Investigations Division – Report Fraud
2
Florida Senate. Florida Code 626.989 – Investigation by Department or Office, Compliance, Reports, Immunity
3
Florida Department of Financial Services. Anti-Fraud Reward Program
4
National Insurance Crime Bureau. Report Fraud
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1347 – Health Care Fraud
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1341 – Frauds and Swindles
7
Internal Revenue Service. Report Tax Fraud, a Scam or Law Violation