Car Accident Compensation Claim: How The Scam Works
(with videos below) There are many types of insurance claims when it comes to car accidents or other types of personal injury. The number of crooks is continuously growing, while deceptive practices are being orchestrated from staged accidents to insurance money. A car accident compensation claim is a severe action, so looking for injury claim lawyers could also have a double-edged sword. Not to mention that you have to go to the fierce war with your insurance company when something unexpected happens.
In this article, we will talk about fraudulent schemes that could lead to astronomical medical bills, lost wages, and suffering. Let's take a look.
Scam Detectors Most Trusted Websites in Online Security
- Guard.io (100): Surf the web safely. Clean up your browser, remove maliscious extensions and check for privacy violations.
- Incogni.com (100): Delete your personal data from the internet and protect against scams and identity theft.
- ExpressVPNÂ (100) Stay secure and anonymous online - Best VPN Out There
Here are four common fraud examples of road accident compensation claims:
1. Swoop and Squat, aka the Bogus Accident Claim CompensationÂ
This variation is mostly known as the “Swoop and Squat” case. It consists of fake vehicle accidents. A car (‘the swoop') purposely speeds up and cuts you off by a few inches and stop. Since you are unable to stop in time, you rear-end the scammer's car. Before you even realize it, three or four people come out of the ‘swoop' car, claiming some whiplash injury compensation and proceed with making a car accident injury claim. You are out of luck. You will need a reasonable car accident attorney.
This scam has a long history. In the '80s, immigrant people of Hispanic background were recruited to be part of the fraud as claimers. However, it is stated that the ‘Swoop and squat' scam went wrong numerous times, taking the lives of innocent people and leading to additional injured victims. Do not get involved in any staged auto accident.
The Swoop and Squat Scam is also pulled occasionally by young people that are not even using a motor vehicle, but bicycles. It has been reported that some are fearlessly throwing themselves in front of cars, looking for maximum compensation.
2. Fake Road Traffic Accident Claims for InsuranceÂ
Watch the video below to see in action this scam caught on camera:
Fake Car Accident Claims Caught on Camera Video
Imagine this scenario: you are driving into a busy intersection with merging traffic lanes where you might not have the right to be the first. The scammer – who does have the right to do it – might invite YOU to do it, by waving his hand. As you think ‘what a nice guy' and drive ahead, he proceeds to hit you on purpose.
The crook will then claim that he was supposed to get in first and fill the insurance papers with confidence. He may even fake an injury, too. You are at fault, regardless of what you are saying. The scammer may also ask you to pay his fake medical expenses as well for this personal injury claim, as an accident victim.
Several injury claim lawyers have this case on their desks every day, as it seems to happen very often nowadays. However, an experienced attorney would help you go through this successfully, so that the criminal would not get much compensation.
3. Tow Truck Driver Suggests an Auto Body Shop or a Personal Injury Lawyer
This scam typically occurs when a real car accident happens. Some tow truck drivers take commissions from certain auto body shops. It may also be a doctor, chiropractor, physiotherapist, or even a fake personal injury lawyer – all coming ‘highly recommend' by the tow truck driver at the location of the accident. These, in turn, will submit fraudulent claims on the victim's behalf or deceive the victim into undergoing unnecessary treatments or lawsuits.
As the victims are still in shock and the tow truck drivers have some authority, the recommendations are always followed by visits to the places ‘suggested'. “I see you are suffering, man. Contact this attorney for your injury claim. You will win. Oh, and if you need your vehicle fixed, I may help you with that, too.”, may say the driver.
When it comes to the car crash damage, some shady mechanics will charge you an arm and a leg for a job that should probably cost you not even half – so guess what? The tow truck driver's commission comes from your pocket.
After every traffic accident, make sure you do your homework on what the next steps should be. Whether it is about general damages or a serious injury, a compensation claim is a serious matter.
4. Sideswipe Compensation Claim
It could happen in a dual lane turn, where people typically cut a little bit inside, driving over the line. Scammers target cars that slightly come into their lane and hit them instantly. As they claim innocence, they fake accident injuries submit personal injury claims to any insurance company that they may deal with. This intentional collision is also known as the ‘Sideswipe.'
Road accident claims occur all the time, but be very careful about how you drive your car at all times. Otherwise, it would be tough to convince an insurance adjuster to be on your side in order to offer you a decent compensation amount.
Car Accident Injury Claim: How to Avoid the Scam
There are many ways to avoid all of the examples above so that you can reduce the inevitable suffering. Always keep enough distance from the driver in front of you. Or the one beside you. Drive slower in intersections and still stay in your lane, especially in the dual lane turns. Respect the traffic rules, let the ones who should go first go.
In the case of a real accident, use your cell phone to take a lot of pictures of the other car, to make sure the damage matches the story the scammer put on his/her insurance claim. Last but not least, when it comes to recommendations of mechanics or doctors, always rely on trustworthy people that you know. Injury claim lawyers are costly, so every car accident compensation claim might take you to the cleaners and lead to lost wages, although you may not be at fault. Be careful how you drive.
Since we are talking about fraud, educate yourself on a few other scams that are related to the topics mentioned above, by reading the following articles on Scam Detector:
– Cancelled Flight Compensation
How to Report the Fake Road Accident Compensation Claims
Make your family and friends aware of the Accident Compensation Claim Scam by sharing it on social media using the buttons provided. You can also officially report the scammers to the Federal Trade Commission using the link below:
You should also contact the Workers' Compensation Board in your city (or whatever it is called in your area) to see what your options are. They deal with all types of fraud, from fake personal injury lawsuit and legal actions to even contributory negligence.
You can also inform your insurance company about the potential false complaint that they may receive, but make sure you have proof. As mentioned above, take pictures where the auto accident happened, so that you are somehow protected from any personal injury liability or additional punitive damages. Your own insurance company should provide you fair compensation if you have enough material to provide for your car accident claim.
How To Protect Yourself More:
If you want to be the first to find out the most notorious scams every week, feel free to subscribe to the Scam Detector newsletter here. You'll receive periodic emails, and we promise not to spam. Last but not least, use the Comments section below to expose other scammers, whether their fraud is about a motor vehicle accident, medical bills, lost wages or related to any other economic damages.
Verify a website below
Are you just about to make a purchase online? See if the website is legit with our validator:
vldtr®
TOP 4 MUST-WATCH FRAUD PREVENTION VIDEOS
1. Top 5 Amazon Scams in 2024 2. Top 5 PayPal Scams in 2024 3. How To Spot a Scam Email in 2024
- Latest Posts by Selma Hrynchuk
-
Compromised Credit Card Scam
- -
Fake Google Chrome Update
- -
Facebook Privacy Notice Hoax
- All Posts
Could anybody recommend a good medical malpractice lawyer in Vancouver? Thanks
well if you start pursuing any of the injury claims, whether it’s about a car accident, workplace injury or workers compensation insurance, you should consider a few things. For example, you should take advantage of the injury lawyer’s offer of a free consultation. Almost every professional injury attorney offers a free consultation. They’ll review your accident, your injuries, they’ll review the insurance coverage issues involved, which will get the benefit of their free advice. I recommend you obtain that advice and that free consultation before you give an interview and before you make any major decisions on your case.
On the other hand, in serious injury cases you should do not give an initial interview. After an accident, you’ll have an insurance investigator or an insurance adjuster call you and wanted to meet, maybe. You should refuse an initial interview because you want to give it at the right time and that’s after meeting with a lawyer/attorney and after evaluating that the facts.
However, know well the lawyer you hire, whether is a work injury lawyer, workers compensation attorney, etc. Some law firms have people at the courthouse and in the police station collecting accident reports. They’ll send you a cover letter with an nice brochure with the law firm name on it. Maybe another local law firm does a lot of infomercials and you might be familiar with them. However, both of those firms will promise you a free consultation but when you walk into that office don’t be surprised if you don’t meet the people or the attorneys whose names you’ve heard advertise. They might get you to meet with a paralegal or an investigator because they’re screening cases trying to decide who to assign them to. When you have a serious accident, a serious injury, you deserve to meet personally with the attorney responsible for your case. Do not start off the wrong foot and be represented by someone who is not right for you.
Whatever your bad experience is, hire a lawyer. Not just any lawyer, but one with experience in personal injury cases. You don’t want to lawyer that’s fresh out of school or a lawyer that handles divorces, criminal offense, and only does the occasional personal injury case on the side. Most rural lawyers do not have enough personal injury cases to focus on that type of case only, so they have to do a variety of cases: paternity, debt collection, and then they’ll take on an occasional personal injury case.
The insurance company knows when you have an inexperienced lawyer even if that lawyer is an old lawyer – they will hold that against you. Above all, you don’t want to hire a lawyer that works for insurance companies! It’s a fact that insurance companies pay more when you have a lawyer, otherwise they would recommend that you get a lawyer in every case, because a lawyer does most of the work and if they didn’t have to pay more than they would prefer that you have a lawyer, but they don’t recommend that you get a lawyer. That should tell you something.
Another advice I would have is to take photos of your injuries while they’re still fresh. Photos while you still have the bruises, scabs, and swell. Also, get the medical treatment that you need. Don’t grin and bear the pain don’t try to be a tough guy and tough it out without seeing the doctor. Even if you do not have health insurance your lawyer should be able to work with your medical providers to get you the treatment you need and paper it out of your settlement later.
Last but not least, be patient. Remember the 3 P’s: the Perception of Patience Pays! You will receive a larger settlement if the insurance company does not think that you’re desperate for the money. Have your lawyer negotiate with lien holders to reduce the amount that they get paid back out of your settlement. Many people don’t realize that the government, the hospital, the ambulance, the health insurance company, and even your own auto insurance company will try to get paid out of your settlement before you see any of the money! Get your lawyer working for you to shoot down these bogus claims for reimbursement and negotiate with the actual lienholders to reduce the amount that they get out of your settlement. So get more money in your pocket.
so where do you start with injury claims to make sure you’re on the right track? I got hurt and got told a million things…;
I think the insurance companies are even bigger scammers!!! watch out for a few tricks they use, so you don’t remain unpaid. Here is what they don’t want you to know, saw this on a video from a cool lawyer:
Insurance companies go out of their way to encourage people to give them a recorded statement. They do this to help reduce the amount of money they will have to pay on a claim. The reason that recorded statements are so tricky is that most people think that they won’t hurt their case by giving the adjuster a recorded statement or they think that they have to give a recorded statement or else insurance company won’t fix their car or pay their bills.
Before you give a recorded statement get the help of a lawyer. Let him tell you if you have to give a statement or not. Ask him to tell you what questions you do or don’t have to answer. The recorded statements are so dangerous because the questions they ask you are designed to be used against you later. For example, they ask you what injuries you received from the accident. If you leave that one injury they will later accuse you of lying and say "now you complain of a knee injury but when we took you recorded statement right after the accident you didn’t say anything about any injury so you must be making this up to make a profit from the accident case".
Also, the insurance companies are getting you to guess an answer about how to crash happened or get you to say that you don’t know something about the accident then later use this against you. For example they may ask how fast was the guy going who rear-ended you and you might think that he was going at least 30 miles per hour, but later the fax indicate that the property damage was minor and that his speed was closer to 10 miles per hour so then they may say you were really exaggerating the speed when we took your statement so are you now exaggerating your injuries.
Another example is when they ask you where the other car came from and you say "I don’t know". Then make up a plausible explanation of why their insured was not at fault since you can’t say what they did wrong. The only reason you answered "I don’t know" is because you did not have enough time to really investigate the whole thing or see all the information and evidence and so when you gave the recorded statement it was unfair to you since you are not yet fully able to know many things about how the accident happened.
On the other hand, insurance companies hope you don’t talk to a lawyer. They track lawyers’ experience and success and they adjust their settlement offers based upon the reputation of the attorney.
Another good point is to tell your doctor everything about your injuries from the accident on the first visit. Documenting the truth about your injuries is the key to getting a fair settlement. Going to the doctor when you need treatment and telling your doctor everything that’s bothering you is vitally important to your case. Let’s say you have a neck injury that’s really troubling you and your knee also hurts a little from the accident. You go to the doctor after the first 3 weeks and only talk about your neck pain. As the pain in your neck becomes more tolerable you start to worry about your knee pain that hasn’t improved so you tell your doctor about your knee pain for the very first time. This is four weeks after the accident he diagnosis torn cartilage and says you need surgery. The insurance companies then is going to say you hurt your knee one month after the accident!
Also, your prior medical history is a key part of your case. In Florida if you have a pre-existing injury or condition you are entitled to recover more money not less. This is because it’s going to be easier to hurt you since you already have a pre-existing condition. It’s going to make your injury even more serious or permanent, that’s why it’s so important to tell all of your doctors about all of your prior injuries, accidents and treatments before this accident.
Oh God, the videos are so eyeopening!!