> “You can trust this product. If it ever breaks, AnthonyMouse on Hacker News will reimburse you the full purchase price.”

> Would you be ok with that?

When I'm in the insurance business and the party making that claim is paying me insurance premiums under the same terms that I'm already insuring existing things with a commensurate level of risk? That is how insurance works.

If you have renter's insurance and you buy a new television on credit, telling the creditor that you have renter's insurance before you tell the insurance company that you have a new television is not some kind of fraud. If the insurer then suddenly threatens to cancel your insurance if you try to add the television, you have to go back to the creditor, but why would you have reasonably expected them to do that?

That is fraud unless your insurance explicitly covers new purchases without first being informed. That is far from a given.

If you buy on credit and call the insurer to notify them while you're still in the store and they unexpectedly refuse, it's hard to call that fraud when the store can just take back the product before you even leave with it.

If you state it as “I have insurance coverage” rather than “I should be able to obtain coverage immediately” then I don’t see how that’s not fraud. There’s no legal principle that you’re off the hook if your crime doesn’t succeed.

> If you state it as “I have insurance coverage” rather than “I should be able to obtain coverage immediately” then I don’t see how that’s not fraud.

But the second one is the one that applies to a future product you haven't actually provided yet.

I don’t think so (for example, my car insurance automatically covers a new car I buy without the need for immediate notification) but even if so, that’s all the more reason why the first statement is fraud.