Car insurance frauds to watch out for and ways to avoid them!

Partsavatar outlines some of the most common auto insurance scams and tips to avoid them.

When you get involved in an accident, you are already so bewildered by the whole situation occurred, and the other party takes advantage of your vulnerability. Mostly auto insurance scammers take benefit of the situation and demand insurance money for their damaged vehicle. They don’t even give us chance to think.

The worst thing is most accidents are planned to gain insurance money out of innocent drivers. In Ontario, Canada, some scammers deliberately stop their cars on the highways while driving to get forcefully hit by the vehicle coming from behind. In U.S.A. insurance fraud is second most burdensome crime after tax evasion.  It is very important to be active on the road, and be aware of the drivers that are driving nearby. Well, when we are driving we are attentive for our vehicle, and who knows the scammer is driving in front of you.

So in this article, you will know about some famous and common methods of auto insurance scams and ways to deal with them.

THE SWOOP AND SQUAT SCAM

This type of staged crash is quite common on highways or expressways. According to L.A. times these incidents are increasing in Los Angeles. The scammers target luxury or commercial vehicles with larger insurance policies. These scams involve two cars: one driver beside the victim while the other swoops in front of the victim’s car and stops suddenly to cause rear end crash. The fraudsters may come from behind, slow down in busy traffic or at an intersection to cause a crash. They then demand injury and collision insurance against your auto policy.

In traffic, they will accelerate quickly as if the traffic started, but then suddenly push the brakes to catch the victim while they are still accelerating.

It is a coordinated scam and the other car pulls alongside the victim so that they cannot change the lanes.

These scams involve even doctors and professionals in it. They work with the criminals to stage these accidents by identifying the other parties.

ADVICE

In this situation, always keep an eye on the traffic ahead of immediate car. By this you may know the need to speed or slow down. Drivers are advised not to follow the other car too closely.

SHADY HELPERS

This scam happens after a crash has occurred. A stranger may approach you at the crash site or even phone you and pose as a third party insurance official. He will try to convince you to use particular lawyer or health clinic for your injuries. Beware, as it may be a setup for fraudulent car repairs, medical treatments and bogus insurance claims.

ADVICE

You should deal with your insurance company officials and other’s insurance official directly without involving any third party. Do not provide any information to parties other than your insurance company.

FAKE INJURY AND DAMAGE CLAIM

In staged or normal accidents the scammers will act as if they are severely injured to get larger portion of insurance money. They usually claim the injuries that are difficult to notice such as back pain, whiplash or phantom pain. It is hard to find traces of whiplash on the X-ray report, so scammers may get some fraud doctors involved with them to create a false report of their injury. Scammers forge their injury reports to get payout from insurance companies.

Similar to fake injury claims, con artists will claim that their vehicle was damaged far worse than it actually was. Some scammers use pre damaged vehicle like car with damaged auto door mirrors, headlights and taillights or dents, to collide. This is done to show extra damage on their vehicles and to claim extra money from insurance companies. Sometimes, along with the fake damage claiming parties some people are involved who out of nowhere claim injuries.

Fake victim will claim to have been involved in the accident when they were not.

ADVICE

Notice if the driver is fine before the arrival of the police. Because when the police intervene, scammers start to act and moan. File a police report even for a minor accident. No one could forge an official record. So if the official record claims scratches and minor injuries occurred at the time of accident, then the scammer may not be able to claim money for extra severe injuries from insurance companies.

Also, when you are in an accident, get evidence as much as you can from your smart phone. Take pictures of the damaged car parts, victim, driver’s license number, number of passengers present in victim’s car, vehicles involved and eyewitness present. You can also let the police probe into it rather wasting time on arguing so that the other party could not scam you.

SIDESWIPE

Beware if you are driving in the inner lane at busy intersection. While turning if you try to drift into outer lane, scammers may deliberately ram you.

The scammer will be driving next you and deliberately ram into your car to cause accident. These situations commonly happen when the driver is distracted and does not notice to have entered scammer’s lane. The scammer will claim that the victim was not cautiously driving and was engaged in other work or was distracted.

This type of scamming is hard to prove, so it is not so common.

ADVICE

The best way to avoid this is to stay inside your lane. Do not give any opportunity to scammer and be aware. In this situation, dashboard cameras can be useful as they will be recording your side of story so scamming will be difficult.

DRIVE DOWN

When you are trying to merge into traffic, scammer will slow down and wave you forward. He then deliberately crashes into your car and denies giving you any signal to merge. This is done to make it seem like the victim was at fault.

It is one of most common scamming technique as the innocent driver cannot prove whether the scammer signaled him or not.

ADVICE

Keep a sharp eye on the road. Before following any gesture, examine the traffic or space as much as you can. You can ask your co passenger to help you examine because sometimes it is easy to see from the other end.

With these guides and advices, hopefully you can avoid getting involved into fake insurance claims. Always be aware on the road and do not let the scammer to con you by getting evidences as much as possible.

You can seek help of police if you find something fishy. Contact your state insurance fraud bureau if a scammer tries to steer you to an unknown repair shop or clinic.

Keep medical records of the treatments you received. Contact your medical licensing board to ensure your doctor is licensed.

Partsavatar advises you to follow these instructions for safe driving and beware of the scammers on the road. visit Partsavatar.ca for aftermarket auto parts.