Car accident claim scam!!

Raine66

I just wanted to tell you about a phone call I had today from an accident claim company. The man told me that they had been contacted by my insurance company as I had not claimed for injuries that I had received following a non fault car accident back in 2010. He had all the details of the accident and said that the insurers had put £3000 by for me and were just waiting for me to claim it but I only had a few weeks left to do so. I told him I don't remember being injured and he proceeded to tell me that I would have had whiplash with a sore neck, back and shoulders! Apparently the government are trying to get everyone to claim what is rightfully theirs and it doesn't matter if I hadn't seen a doctor or had time off work etc. The money was rightfully mine!!
Once I had finally remembered the accident he was talking about I informed him that I had actually claimed for an injury to my leg. I had to have lots of physio for it and had 2 weeks off work. He then had the nerve to suggest that I was referring to a previous accident and that I still needed to make this claim.
I asked to speak to his manager who went on to say that maybe I had whiplash as well as the leg injury! I asked him why he was encouraging me to make a fraudulent claim. His response was that it was all legal and they were just doing what the insurance company had told them to do.
20 mins this went on for. I should have just put the phone down but curiosity had the better of me as to how far they would go with this!! Finally I got fed up and asked them to leave me alone.
Surely there is a law against this sort of thing??? I wish I had got the name of the company now.
I called my insurance company and they confirmed this was nothing to do with them and the company had just taken my details from an accident register.
We have all seen the adverts, had the text messages...where there is blame there is a claim etc...but this was almost bullying me to make the claim. Certainly a new one on me!
Is it any wonder premiums keep going up so much when there companies out there trying to get honest and decent people to commit fraud while they are making their money for all the referrals they get from this!!

McKneff

This has been doing the rounds for an awful long time. If it happens again, dont waste your time.

Just say 'just a moment' and put the phone to one side, and go and have a bath, then a cuppa, I guarantee that they will be gone before you suddenly remember about the phone. Treat all cold calls like this. It really really works.

Raine66

thanks McKneff, I had no idea! This was a new one to me. I get plenty of cold callers but they soon get told where to go!! This seemed different and I am glad I asked. Still annoying that they are allowed to do it though!!!

tibawo

I member my scam call.... Van slid and bumped my recently parked car. Dd2 was stood on pavement behind me and I was helping dd1 out as had been snowing. I could see the accident happening but could do nothing to stop it. I was told that I must have sustained injury as van went into back of car. I said nope I was stood on pavement. I was TOLD that this was not possible.

dacouch

Have you obtained any quotes from any comparison sites, some of them sell your details on when you disclose a non fault claim

oscarward

some of them sell your details on no matter what anyway.

Son started getting marketing mails from the local Vauxhall dealer who told me they had bought a list from Vauxhall, who in turn had bought it from a comparison site.

I knew which site it was as I assign a different email address to each site so I know if it is sold on. I presume buried somewhere in the t&cs it will say they can do it.

I asked for Vauxhall's data protection officer to contact me but they never responded.

Crazy_Jamie

Raine66 wrote:

We have all seen the adverts, had the text messages...where there is blame there is a claim etc...but this was almost bullying me to make the claim. Certainly a new one on me!
Is it any wonder premiums keep going up so much when there companies out there trying to get honest and decent people to commit fraud while they are making their money for all the referrals they get from this!!

You are mixing up a few types of companies here. For the record, you have three main types;

1) Solicitors. Plenty of the companies that advertise on television are either solicitors or networks of solicitors. The vast majority of these are legitimate, and frankly if you need or want to make a personal injury claim you should be instructing a solicitor directly.

2) Claims Management Companies. In practice it can be very difficult for the man on the street to tell the difference between a claims management company and a solicitors firm. Claims management companies can act for you in a claim, but in practice they will act in uncomplicated matters or until issues become contested or complex, and then they will pass your case along to a solicitor (who normally pays a referral fee for that privilege). Frankly is there is very little benefit to claims management companies even existing from a consumer perspective, and there is certainly no benefit in instructing them in a personal injury claim. That said, most of them are at least legitimate and will act for you properly, even if they are unnecessary.

3) Scam artists. When you receive unsolicited texts and phonecalls, the vast majority of these are not from legitimate sources. Whilst they refer to claiming for injuries, in practice chances are they are just trying to scam people with upfront fees or similar, or at best are looking to pass on your case immediately for a referral fee, which obviously you receive no actual benefit from in terms of their involvement. All calls and texts referring to personal injury claims should be ignored.

Unfortunately the average person cannot tell the difference between those three groups, and either believe that there is something dodgy about solicitors firms (there usually isn't) or believe that the companies that send them unsolicited texts or calls are legitimate (they usually aren't). It's one of the reasons why this sort of thing is so common; because people are very easily sucked in by it all.

chicken_licken_3

I had a similar thing, maybe 4-5 years ago.

A transit van went into the back of my car at some traffics lights, his fault, all taken care of by the insurers.

Last Feb, had a call from a PI claim firm saying I'd not 'rightfully' claimed the compo set aside by the 3 party insurers for my PI claim.

I made no claim for PI, it was offered but I declined, I got my uninsured losses though (car seat, broken glasses). They tried telling me it was part of the uninsured losses claim.

I asked them to send further details in writing but the hung up, tried me 3-4 more times before losing it with them, they said they could not longer represent me as 'our relationship had broken down'