Rating Software Piracy Crack down Reaches Wedding Chapel

The FSC Rater is the dominant rating software for insurance agents in California, but not everyone using the system is doing so legally. An in-depth investigation by private detectives in the Los Angeles area has uncovered rampant software piracy by unlicensed agents, according to a recent report by San Diego-based Insurance Journal.

Robert Meyerson, president of Agoura Hills, CA-based FSC, headed the investigative efforts after trying unsuccessfully to enlist the cooperation of agents and the California Department of Insurance (CDI).

"The situation reached a level that we could no longer ignore or condone it,'" he said. "We needed to take a very aggressive approach."

In June of 1998, Meyerson took the matter to a private investigative service. Undercover agents found the pirated software throughout southern California. The software showed up in insurance agencies, of course, but also in furniture stores, check cashing facilities and even a Hollywood wedding chapel.

"I was blown away by how widespread the problem actually is," said Supervising Agent Thomas Convey. "And it runs the gamut as far as how it's passed around."

Meyerson's then turned the information over to the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department's High Tech Crimes Unit. "We're looking for people who are selling the product to three or more people, paying FSC and then copying the disks and selling the updates,'' Detective John Colbert said. "If they set out to make a profit with it, that is prosecutable."

Meyerson estimated that FSC loses $210 a month for each account that is illegally acquired. In 1998, he estimated that FSC's revenue loss was close to three-quarters of a million dollars.

According to Colbert, the illegal use of the rater qualifies as theft in excess of $400, making it a felony.

Insurance Journal reports that as yet there have been charges filed, but at least four documented cases have been turned over to the Sheriff Department. The CDI will handle prosecution of the unlicensed agents.