How to Avoid Car Accident and Insurance Fraud

The Inside Edition recently featured an investigative report on car accidents scams, one of which featured Jonathan Jones, a driver who got involved in as many as 42 car accidents in the span of 9 years.

Police in North Carolina claimed that Jones was a con man whose modus operandi was to deliberately crash into cars in parking lots to collect insurance money.

While Jones denied the accusations, a video of him and his white truck in a Wal-Mart parking lot, scoping for a target before deliberately speeding and crashing into another car was presented by the police.

Allegedly, Jones gets as much as $10,000 at the very least for each “accident”. He later on pled guilty to 11 counts of insurance fraud. He was sentenced to 5 years of probation and his license has been suspended indefinitely.

A total of $20 billion are lost annually by the insurance industry because of car accident fraud. Aside from property damage, some staged car accidents have caused serious injuries and in some instances, even death. Here are some of the most commonly used car accident scams:

• Swoop and Squat – A rear-end collision is caused by the artist by “swooping” his vehicle in front of yours and then suddenly jamming on the brakes. The driver and sometimes, its passengers would claim to have suffered head and neck injuries.
• Drive Down – This happens when you try to merge into traffic because another driver slows down and waves you forward. He would deliberately crash into your car but will deny waving you into traffic and would blame the accident on you.
• Sideswipe – If you drift into the outer lane while turning, some scammers would deliberately ram into you at a busy intersection.
• Shady Helpers – After an accident, sometimes, the driver or another person/stranger would approach you and set you up to get help from a specific auto-body shop, doctor or chiropractor, or visit a lawyer he knows who can help you sue for injuries.

If you are ever in a car accident, bear in mind that some accidents are deliberate so as to earn compensation off you or your insurance company for damages. Remember to always stop at the accident scene, call the police, and also, take in as many details as you could so as to establish that you are not at fault.

Having a lawyer during accidents, especially when you suspect the other driver to have intentionally caused the crash, can save you time and money against such car accident scams.

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