According to a study of insurance fraud, it is almost as widespread a crime as?

Insurance fraud is considered almost as widespread as income tax evasion because both crimes often go unreported and can involve large numbers of individuals attempting to deceive systems for financial gain. Just like tax evasion, which relies on individuals failing to report their true income or inflating deductions, insurance fraud involves policyholders or providers misrepresenting facts to obtain undeserved payouts. The scale of these issues is significant, making them major concerns for regulatory bodies and financial institutions.

In contrast, while drug trafficking, shoplifting, and identity theft are serious crimes, they do not have the same level of systemic impact on financial infrastructures as insurance fraud and tax evasion. Insurance fraud and tax evasion are often intertwined with economic behaviors and societal attitudes towards risk and responsibility, thus highlighting their prevalence and the challenges in combating them.