Beware Of The Latest Crash For Cash Scam
Insurance continues to go up and up, year on year and while it’s a necessary evil we have to deal with in order to drive legally, it’s a legitimate grievance that the safe, careful, law abiding motorist is, at least to a certain degree, subsidising the reckless and illegal road users.
While bad drivers cause everyone’s premiums to go up, there are also the downright criminals who stage or engineer collisions with the specific intent of claiming against the insurance policy of their hapless victim. These are collectively referred to as crash for cash scams, or induced collisions and they’re nothing new.
Common tactics are slamming brakes on at junctions, or gesturing to let the victim out at a junction only to then drive into them and blame the other driver (claiming to never have made the gesture to let them out).
Crash For Cash Scammers Target Vans
The scammer’s tactics however, do evolve over time. While lone female drivers or female drivers with children in the car are favourite targets, the latest crash for cash trend is for moped riding criminals to position themselves behind reversing vans and turn on the dramatics after the inevitable bump. It’s a trend that started recently in London, but there’s evidence it’s creeping outside the capital, typically found in the congested and tightly packed urban areas like town and city centres. There have even been reports of scooters and mopeds being rented from unscrupulous garages, direct to the fraudsters after the crash, at inflated prices with the bill being sent to the hapless victim’s insurance company.
What To Do If You Suspect You’ve Been The Victim Of Attempted Crash For Cash Insurance Fraud
The Insurance Fraud Bureau has some excellent advice for victims of such scams, specifically, treat it like any other collision and gather the same details you would for any other potential insurance claim.
- Be polite with the other driver and/or passengers and avoid confrontation
- Exchange details like name, address, insurance companies, contact information etc.
- Make a note of how many other people are involved
- Make a note and ideally photograph the scene and immediate surroundings
- Look for CCTV
- If any bystanders or witnesses are willing to help, get their details especially if they have dashcams
- Contact your insurer and let them know what’s happened and that you suspect fraud
- Report your suspicions to the Inusrance Fraud Bureau Cheatline on 0800 422 0421
Advice given on telltale signs of premeditated collisions include
- Playacting or exaggeration of damage and/or injuries
- The driver and passengers don’t seem all that shocked by the collision
- The other party is ready with pre-printed/prepared insurance docs (seriously, who carries those around?)
How To Prevent Being A Victim
The price of peace is eternal vigilance as they say – if you want the best chance of avoiding crash for cash scammers, you have to keep your wits about you at all times. Practicing defensive and safe driving will certainly help though. We all know the distance we’re supposed to keep from the vehicle in front and we all know to leave more space when it’s wet etc. Those of us who’ve been driving for a while can usually spot erratic or unusual driving behaviour from other vehicles, it’s wise to give such drivers an even wider berth.
As businesses often discover in any case, driving better vehicles can work out far cheaper in the long run too. Take a typical van for instance, the kind that’s too low spec’ for us to keep on fleet. Something with minimal features – they’re far easier to have accidents in simply because of how few have driver aids.
Upgraded and higher end vehicles (such as those you’ll find on our van rental fleet) however, are more likely to come equipped with parking sensors, reverse cameras, automatic emergency braking and many other features which make it far less likely that the drivers will hit things by accident, or become victim to those inducing such collisions. It’s in these ways that ‘more expensive’ cars and vans ultimately cost you less – especially if they’re from us!
Stay safe out there!
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