Hope my question makes sense. Long story short, I got into an accident in traffic. Very very very light love tap. The other person had scratches on the back of their vehicle (semi deep scratches), mine had absolutely no damage. The guy told me he had been in a hit and run prior.. and I truly think that’s where the scratches were from. Anyhow, I took it to a body shop where my insurance requested and the body shop said the scratches on the other party’s car are old and don’t even match the color of my car. My insurance paid them 8k already for the car. The guy is now suing me for bodily injury lol. Anyhow… I’m a bit annoyed my insurance paid him. My insurance guy told me to call the adjuster Tuesday to talk to the adjuster to explain the evidence I have.
So my questions basically are…. Is it normal to give a payout for the damage to the car so quickly… and is it easy for the adjuster or insurance to catch the other party doing fraud?
How easy is it for insurance companies to catch a fraudster?
byu/Busy-Poet-7275 inInsurance
Posted by Busy-Poet-7275
5 Comments
The agents see it all day long. Most of the time they are pretty good at spotting it. If he does sue you then insurance will represent you. Sometimes it’s easier and cheaper to pay out a claim and make it go away
Yeah, sadly it’s easier to give them a small settlement than it is to take em to court and challenge them. It’s a messed up system and lots of attorneys/chiropractors are in on the game, but that’s just the way it is.
Regarding the damage, I don’t think pre-scratches are going to make any difference. If you rear ended this persons vehicle, there’s going to be some damage (even if small). Bumpers and cheap and easier to replace than repair, so it wouldn’t make any difference if they already had a messed up bumper
Not sure how it got up to 8K, you’ll want to ask the adjuster that question. Must have been some trunk/lift gate involvement I suppose
It doesn’t really matter much what it is or isn’t. You pay your carrier to manage nonsense and make it go away so you can go back to your regularly scheduled life. Just leave a bit more distance when you drive from now on.
Something like 80% of all claims have some level of fraud. There’s hard fraud, like burning your house down on purpose, and soft fraud like exaggerating your neck pain or the size of your TV that burned up. Dealing with it is built into the system and most people are totally willing to commit a little soft fraud and that’s enough for them and they feel like they’re playing the system. No one really cares about the little stuff and it helps everything go smoother if people don’t have to prove every little thing throughout the whole process. The big stuff, you can feel in your gut when its not right and about 10% of the time you can actually do something about it. Mostly, its near impossible to prove and so best option is to make presenting the claim so meticulous that people are really having to swear and commit to the fraud and they usually realize just how much they’re documenting their lie that they eventually withdraw. 20% commit whole heartedly and they get paid as its too hard or too expensive to fight.
Totally pulled out of my ass numbers and totally anecdotal but probably not too terribly far off
It’s a money grab, but at the end of the day you caused an accident so your insurance is going to pay out.