Scammer with access to specific details of accident

thrifty_pete

I had an accident, and following an insurance claim, I have received calls from various scammers.
The callers know my full name, address, car details and date of crash, as well as the nature of the crash. I did not give any information out at any point. They volunteered this information to convince me that they were genuine. 
I complained to my insurer, who initially sounded interested in helping. Now they seem to be back-covering and suggesting I released the data myself. 
My expectation would be for them to take on board what has happened, and log my report against the third parties used in my claim (e.g. their repair garage). In future if there are any further reports, they can correlate it and perhaps ask the ICO to investigate. 
Perhaps I am being naïve, but it is disappointing that the insurer seems uninterested in what I have reported, or tries to suggest I gave out the information. That is not the case.
I wondered if this has happened to other people?

[Deleted User]

It depends what you mean by 'scammer'. If you mean the ambulance chasers, then yes, it happens to most people after a claim.

thrifty_pete

Thanks for the reply @Deleted_User
The scammer did suggest I was innocent and with his help I could get some money. No ambulances involved, at least no real ambulances.
So what would you say is the most likely source of this claims data, as it happens so often? Is there a fairly public database or is it only for people in the insurance industry? I am in favour of sharing information to prevent fraud (claiming twice perhaps?) but if having relatively open access to this data increases the risk of fraud against policy holders that isn't a good thing.
An anti-fraud database wouldn't need my mobile number to be effective surely? 

Merlin139

DW had a collision in 2017 where her parked car was hit by another car. Dealt with by a CMC and that produced nearly 6 months worth of phone calls from various companies trying to get her to claim for injuries. Even when they were told that she was not in the vehicle!

She had been involved in another accident 6 weeks beforehand but none of the calls had any details of that accident. The only details they had were for the 2nd accident. By recording all the calls and checking the information given we were able to prove that all of the companies were connected to the CMC. 

I sent all the information that we gathered to the ICO.

thrifty_pete

@Merlin139 great to hear I'm not alone in trying to do something about this. So the "CMC" Claims Management Company was acting for you or the other party?
I guess these CMCs are due to light touch regulation and defunding legal aid? 

Sandtree

In most cases they have little/no information but use the same techniques as scammers to trick you into revealing information... there are millions of databases of names/telephone numbers and when they say they're calling about your recent accident, have your name and say they think there is money in it for you then you drop your guard if you have had a recent accident... if you haven't then you call them out.

These companies pay good money for referrals and so there have been isolated cases of garages, GP surgeries etc passing details on (at one point one accident management company was sending GPs free appointment cards to use which had their contact details on the reverse). Again more commonly though its a conversation they have with you and say they can put you in touch with a company that can help and you just "yeah" it away but the permission was technically given. Once its out there it is often resold. 

The problem is that your insurer has no way of knowing who the callers are let alone where they purchased your details from. 

Merlin139

thrifty_pete said:

@Merlin139 great to hear I'm not alone in trying to do something about this. So the "CMC" Claims Management Company was acting for you or the other party?
I guess these CMCs are due to light touch regulation and defunding legal aid? 

The CMC was acting for my wife. The car was 4 weeks old and it was a referral from the Car manufacture. I even passed on the details to the other parties insurer as the CMC were happy to leave the Hire Car with us to use for a month at a cost of £73 per day. My wife's car was returned repaired after 2 weeks.

Learnt a lot about Management Companies and there practices. Yes they take all the hassle out of dealing with the fallout from the accident but they are all about making as much money as possible. If you have a decent insurance company and have the correct cover in place you get a better outcome and its not putting up the cost of all insurance.

400ixl

A pretty decent page for detailing some of the insurance databases which are cross insurer in the industry is https://www.confused.com/car-insurance/guides/motor-insurance-database

[Deleted User]

I was involved with one on a bike with a car hitting me. 100% the NHS sold the data, they were the only people beyond my family who knew about it and the accident claims people contacted me before I'd even spoken to the other insurer

comeandgo

A few years ago I was waiting at the reception area of a garage while my car was being serviced.  A man came in and the receptionist gave him details of the vehicles that had come in for accident repair.

csgohan4

Deleted_User said:

I was involved with one on a bike with a car hitting me. 100% the NHS sold the data, they were the only people beyond my family who knew about it and the accident claims people contacted me before I'd even spoken to the other insurer

what about the garage who took your bike as above?

One must be pretty brave with their job to disavow ICO rules on data in the NHS