A pedestrian appears under your wheels or a car deliberately drives in front of your vehicle? Faced with these crooks who will do anything to get your money, a simple detail can save you from being at fault.
Driving on a daily basis already requires constant attention, but a new threat now looms over the roads and directly targets motorists. Already infamous in the United States and China, this formidable scam could well cross our borders. His name? THE “crash for cash”which could be translated as “laccident for money“. This practice, as pernicious as it is worrying, is based on a Machiavellian staging: the pure and simple simulation of a road disaster.
The modus operandi of these traffic offenders is enough to send shivers down your spine. Willing to do anything to achieve their ends, some crooks do not hesitate to deliberately throw themselves under the wheels of a car traveling at slow speed. Others prefer to engage reverse in traffic, or to brake suddenly to cause pileups on the highway. Very often, these individuals do not work alone and rely on accomplices disguised as “false witnesses” to establish their credibility. Their objective is twofold: to extort a large sum from your insurance company by feigning serious injuries, or to play on your guilt to demand immediate compensation in cash, under the cover of an amicable settlement supposed to avoid a penalty.
Beyond the financial damage, the trap sometimes closes in a much more insidious way. The scammer takes advantage of the driver’s state of stress and the stressful situation to appear falsely accommodating and offer to “simplify procedures” by taking a photo of your identity papers, claiming to want to save time for the report. In addition to the insurance scam, the perpetrators of these “fake accidents” are also trying to usurp your identity.
So what to do in such a situation? Caution and composure are your best allies. If the circumstances of the collision seem unclear to you, categorically refuse to allow anyone to take photos of your official documents and limit the personal information you disclose to the strict minimum. Keep your mind sharp: observe and memorize the license plates, the model of the vehicles, the true extent of the damage and the layout of the scene. When writing the report, do not omit any disturbing details in the “observations” section, whether it be unjustified braking, overly insistent witnesses or contradictory statements. If you have the slightest doubt, do not give in to intimidation: immediately contact the police to have the situation noted, then alert your insurance company immediately to prevent any attempt at fraud.
To definitively protect yourself against these predators of the road, one piece of equipment deserves to be known: the “dashcam”. This small on-board camera, attached to the dashboard or windshield, films your journeys continuously and constitutes irrefutable proof in the event of a dispute or staging.
