AUTO ACCIDENT FRAUD
Auto accident fraud - accidents perpetrated by crime rings - drives everyone's car insurance premiums up. Insurance-industry experts estimated that criminals who plan auto accidents, claim false injuries, and even set up fake health clinics steal hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance payments every year.
Deliberate accidents are so well planned, they even have names:
Swoop and Squat - A driver is cut off by a braking car and hits it in the rear. Passengers pretend to be injured.
Drive Down - A driver waves another to enter the traffic flow, then rams and blames him or her.
Sideswipe - One car's driver intentionally strikes another car in two-lane turns at intersections.
Shady helpers - An "eyewitness", an accomplice, suggests that the victim patronize a complicit body shop, physician, or lawyer following an accident.
PROTECT YOURSELF
Law enforcement and insurance professionals encourage drivers to be alert to planned accidents and to follow these steps:
1. Distance your vehicle from others
2. Call the police right away and get the officers' names and badge numbers. Obtain a police report.
3. Write down all the details of any accident - car make and year, tag number, registration, driver's license, phone number, accident description...everything.
4. Write down the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all passengers. Someone not there may claim to have been present. Note if anyone seems seriously injured.
5. Seek medical help if you are injured.
6. Talk to legal counsel.
