How Insurance Companies Investigate Social Media To Deny Claims In Nevada

If you ever doubted how pervasive social media is in 21^st century life, consider the following. According to SocialPilot, more than 5.3 billion people around the world were active social media platforms as of April 2025. That represents a 5.4% increase from last year, when the number of people actively using social media platforms globally totaled 5.04 billion.

A closer look at social media statistics specific to the United States shows that 253 million Americans are “active social media users.” This means the vast majority of people here (almost three-quarters of the total U.S. population) the have social network accounts, regardless of age. Based on the number of monthly active users, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are the most popular social media platforms here. On average, Americans dedicate slightly more than two hours per day to social media usage.

Given that, it should go without saying that businesses continue to capitalize on social media’s popularity. Most do so by using various platforms to identify, attract, keep, and engage with their customers. Others access social media platforms for different reasons, however.

Recently, it has become increasingly apparent the insurance companies conduct social media investigations to verify or deny claims. In this article, we will look at the ways in which insurance companies investigate social media to deny claims in Nevada.

Common Social Media Investigation Tactics Used By Insurance Companies

Let’s say that you are injured in some sort of accident and file an insurance claim.

Experts say one of the first things the insurance company or adjuster will do is scour your social media profile(s). This means they will check your posts, including comments, photos, or videos (stories or reels) to see if you are hurt as badly as you claim.

Specifically, they will look for:

• Visual evidence of you engaging in recreational or daily activities that should not be possible after the accident given the extent of the injuries you say you sustained.
• Contradictory statements after the accident indicating that you may not be hurt as badly as you say – if at all.
• Location tags or “check-ins” at certain places – such as a ski resort, amusement park, or even the airport – indicating that you are capable of doing more following the accident than your injuries should allow.

In one anecdote shared on claimsjournal.com, for example, an insurance company thwarted an injury lawsuit by finding an incriminating Instagram post. As the story goes, a woman shared the photo of her husband “jumping onto a boogie board floating in a backyard pool” on the social media platform. Crucially, the photo showed her husband engaged in this activity after they both claimed they were hurt in a car crash and needed spinal surgery.

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Methods Insurance Companies Use To Access Your Social Media Activity In Nevada

So how do insurance companies access your social media activity?

Let’s start with the most obvious answer. If you have a public account – or even if your account is “private” but you share certain posts publicly, anyone can see them. So in this case an insurance investigation is simple. All the insurance adjuster has to do is find your account, verify it is yours, and verify any information there that is used to deny your claim.

A social media investigation becomes a little trickier when an account is private.

Certain strategies that could be used to gain access to your social media activity are generally frowned upon. One of these is the creation of a fake account specifically for the purposes of sending a friend request to the person being investigated and gaining access to their posts. Experts say this definitely a no-no for lawyers involved in insurance investigations. This is because doing so is widely considered inappropriate communication without proper notice to all parties involved in a case. Another example is the use of an insurance investigator’s personal email or social media account to initiate or conduct a social media investigation.

Instead, experts recommend that insurance investigators a so-called “sock puppet” account. This is a mock social media identity or account created for an insurance investigator that allows him or her to access relevant information without exposing his or her real identity. Other acceptable methods for accessing pertinent material include using an account belonging to someone who is “friends” with or “follows” the subject of the investigation. In some cases, an investigator may even be able to access or obtain relevant information from a friend or relative’s social media account as part of an inquiry. This typically happens when you have shared posts with them, or they have their own photos or videos that contradict your claim.

Barring all of that, experts also say that plaintiffs must provide relevant material from their social media accounts to defense lawyers upon request as part of the discovery process. Opposing attorneys have access to this material at this stage because several courts have ruled that social media privacy settings do not necessarily apply in this context.

Can Your Nevada Insurance Claim Be Denied Based On Social Media Investigations?

Yes – but there is an important catch. In order to be admissible as evidence in an insurance claims case, the social media content in question must be not only relevant, but also verified.

To learn more about how insurance companies investigate social media to deny claims in Nevada, and what you can do to protect yourself, contact Van Law Firm today.