Car insurance claim - strange follow up calls

hedgewitchery

Hi,
I'm getting some weird ambulance-chasery calls from an unknown company and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what the deal is.

The background is that I was involved in a very low speed bump at the tail end of last year. I was bringing my teenage daughter home from hospital, had parked awkwardly in the pick up section in the pouring rain, was a bit stressed and basically misjudged my exit and scraped the tail end of a van in front of me. It was totally my fault but it was an incredibly low-speed collision and my vehicle got the worst of it, which was just a bit of a dent in the bodywork. The van's bumper was maybe slightly scuffed. The other driver and I swapped details and I reported it to my insurance and they arranged for all my repairs and, presumably, for anything the other guy claimed (I really can't imagine it was for much). Didn't think much more about it, but now I'm getting phone calls from some unknown company that keeps going on to me about how I should be encouraging my daughter to put in a claim against my insurance as well, as she was a passenger and is entitled to claim? I just said I wasn't interested the first time I spoke to someone and ignored a few follow up calls but they've just called me from a different number and I picked up, not realising. 

I don't really understand what this is all about - is it a scam? My daughter was completely unharmed by the accident as I travelled something like 3 foot at 2 miles an hour before I clipped the van in front. I have no intention of progressing this any further but I'm just curious as to what the angle is? The woman kept going on about how my daughter is entitled to claim and I've already taken the impact of the claim against me, so "no questions will be asked and it's money that would be better off in my (or my daughter's) pocket". Even if that's true, I don't see how this company benefits from it? I suspect I'm being very naive... Can anyone explain to me whether this is routine/odd/a total scam, please?

Sandtree

If she was unharmed then to claim otherwise would be fraud and it would be her/you that are the fraudsters not the ambulance chasers.

One of the many problems with ambulance chasers is that they sell leads... if they can get someone to say they want to make a claim they can then get £500 (or whatever the figure) selling that lead on. You'd hope whoever buys the lead then realises its duff but having spend half the revenue they hoped to make from the lead buying it then they too have some level of conflict of interests... plus by this time you're excited about the £3k the ambulance chaser promised and so fully prepared to stretch the truth after all, insurance fraud is victimless (which its not because we all pay for it in our premiums).

Just keep saying no one injured.

hedgewitchery

Ah, OK - if it's just a case of them trying to persuade me to fabricate a personal injury claim, I'm more than happy to tell them to get to falkirk. I was just momentarily confused because I kept saying my daughter was completely uninjured and the woman was like "it doesn't matter - she was in the car, you should have made a claim just for her being there when the accident took place", almost as though I hadn't followed the normal claim process properly.

In retrospect, I can see it was all just aggressive sales blather - thanks for the clarity!

Sandtree

Don't know if your daughter is a minor or adult but yes, they'd go on to ask about stiff neck, not sleeping well, bed wetting after it etc and so all minor symptoms of injury from an impact.

If you/she did pursue it she would technically be suing you for causing her psychological/physical damages even if your insurers deal with it all for you... one of those things that could go two ways in the future at family gatherings.

MalMonroe

hedgewitchery said:

Hi,
I'm getting some weird ambulance-chasery calls from an unknown company and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what the deal is.

The background is that I was involved in a very low speed bump at the tail end of last year. I was bringing my teenage daughter home from hospital, had parked awkwardly in the pick up section in the pouring rain, was a bit stressed and basically misjudged my exit and scraped the tail end of a van in front of me. It was totally my fault but it was an incredibly low-speed collision and my vehicle got the worst of it, which was just a bit of a dent in the bodywork. The van's bumper was maybe slightly scuffed. The other driver and I swapped details and I reported it to my insurance and they arranged for all my repairs and, presumably, for anything the other guy claimed (I really can't imagine it was for much). Didn't think much more about it, but now I'm getting phone calls from some unknown company that keeps going on to me about how I should be encouraging my daughter to put in a claim against my insurance as well, as she was a passenger and is entitled to claim? I just said I wasn't interested the first time I spoke to someone and ignored a few follow up calls but they've just called me from a different number and I picked up, not realising. 

I don't really understand what this is all about - is it a scam? My daughter was completely unharmed by the accident as I travelled something like 3 foot at 2 miles an hour before I clipped the van in front. I have no intention of progressing this any further but I'm just curious as to what the angle is? The woman kept going on about how my daughter is entitled to claim and I've already taken the impact of the claim against me, so "no questions will be asked and it's money that would be better off in my (or my daughter's) pocket". Even if that's true, I don't see how this company benefits from it? I suspect I'm being very naive... Can anyone explain to me whether this is routine/odd/a total scam, please?

Hi, I think it's a scam and that it has no connection to the accident you had. The fact that you DID have an accident is the problem here. Some months ago, I kept getting calls from a vague company I'd never heard of wanting to help me after my road traffic accident. Although I'm a driver, I had not had any such accident and thought it was a scam and told them so. 

But when you HAVE had an accident, it's natural to think that their call is something to do with that, even when it's all been sorted. There was a letter in the Guardian some time ago about this, it's from 2017 but the details are similar to the calls I kept getting, link here -

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/nov/27/plagued-nuisance-calls-accident-telephone-preference-service

If you know the matter has all been dealt with and sorted out via your insurance company then it's best to either ignore the calls or block the numbers, if you can.  Even if you do pick up, just replace the receiver as soon as the caller starts their spiel.

These scammers are relying on the fact that some people are greedy and will want more money and fall for their scam. They will probably be hoping to get something out of it themselves by tricking you into revealing all your bank details or something. They just want your money and you will be left without anything in anyone's pocket.

Sadly, it's not even illegal for them to hound people like that. Just say NO and hang up. 

hedgewitchery

MalMonroe said:

Hi, I think it's a scam and that it has no connection to the accident you had. The fact that you DID have an accident is the problem here. Some months ago, I kept getting calls from a vague company I'd never heard of wanting to help me after my road traffic accident. Although I'm a driver, I had not had any such accident and thought it was a scam and told them so. 

No, it definitely is connected to this particular accident as they knew the dates and the name of the other driver, which is why I didn't just blow them off immediately - to begin with I was wondering if this was my own insurance company coming back to tie up some loose ends. I agree that it's just another kind of scam, though, and I should just tell them to beat it!