We investigate the common insurance scams and how to avoid some of these.
It is often unbelievable how far people will go for an extra buck! In dealing with car insurance, we have heard it all – from “my grandpa did it and he’s blind” to “I tried to let my cat drive” – okay so maybe we haven’t heard ALL of it, but the cat one is pretty funny.
But when it comes to insurance scams there are some common ones out there that a number of people use to try and get some money from insurance.
We take a closer look at these insurance scams and list the most common of them from around the world (yes, these happen everywhere)…
The ‘swoop’
It is common knowledge (and it is actually law), that if a driver drives into the back of another driver, in other words, they rear-end the driver in front of them – then the car who went into the driver in front is at fault – always.
So, if Sam drives into the back of Bob – Sam is at fault. Even if Bob braked out of nowhere (this is also why following distance is so important).
Scammers (the baddies), often take advantage of this law and use something known as the ‘swoop’ to try and get money from insurance.
The scammer will take note of any small gaps in traffic and once he decides on his unfortunate victim (sorry if this has ever been you), will swoop into the lane and suddenly brake, making it nearly impossible for the victim to brake – leading to a bumper bashing.
It helps if you are insured otherwise you will have to cover the costs of this accident out of your own pocket. If you don’t have car insurance, then don’t worry – you can get a quote right now.
To stop this from ever happening to you, make sure that you keep a good following distance between you and the car in front of you at all times – follow the 2 second rule.
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The ‘wave in’
Isn’t it great when a friendly driver lets you pull in front of him when you need to get into his lane?
Sadly, some scammers will do this to try and cause an accident and get some money from insurance, saying that that did not actually allow you to come in front of them and that you just pushed in – the nerve of it all!
The accident is then considered to be your fault and you are then forced to claim from your vehicle insurance to pay for the damage to both your vehicle and the scammer’s.
There is often no way to avoid this as you cannot predict whether a driver is being genuine or not when they let you in – talk about trust issues!
The ‘hit and run’
This is sometimes done on purpose in order to hide what really happened in the accident.
The classic ‘hit and run’ happens when a driver damages his or her car and then claims that the accident was caused by another vehicle who just happened to flee the scene.
Unless there are security cameras in that area, then it is often very difficult for us to validate whether claims like this are real or insurance scams.
However, if the scammer is proven to be lying, then he or she will be charged with fraud.
The ‘sideswipe’
You need to be careful when turning lanes. When there are two turning lanes then a scammer can purposely drift into your lane and cause a sideswipe accident, meaning he will drift into you.
The scammer will then claim that you were the one drifting into his lane and because this is difficult to prove, he may get the insurance pay-out.
Always check your blind spot for this reason!
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These are the sorts of claims and insurance scams we deal with on a daily basis. But the thing is, we love car insurance – so much so that we make it as simple as possible for our Oneplan customers.
We also let you have total control over how much of your car you are covered for and how much this costs.
The best part?
You can change it from the palm of your hand through the Oneplan App. Change your cover, access your policy details, chat to one of our team members in seconds through our app. It’s basically insurance in your pocket.
We also don’t make you go through exhausting and time-consuming vehicle inspections. All you have to do is snap some photos of your car and validate these through our app and just like that – you are covered!
The thing is, life is complicated enough with you needing to avoid being a victim of insurance scams… your insurance shouldn’t be complicated too.
We only have Oneplan – to make today better.
Your Insurance Family,
Oneplan
