South African motorists have been warned to be wary of a scamming tactic known as ‘crash-for-cash’, which has become a major issue for everyday motorists, fleets, and insurance companies.
According to Cartrack, scammers will deliberately cause an accident in a way that looks like their target is at fault in order to scam them or their insurance company.
“When you don’t have any proof or witnesses, it can be difficult to actually prove your innocence when an accident does essentially look like you caused it,” the company said.
Garth de Klerk, the CEO of the Insurance Crime Bureau in South Africa, explained that insurance fraud has become a hidden crisis costing the industry billions, inflating premiums, eroding trust, and impacting honest policyholders.
The main targets of crash-for-cash scams tend to be high-end vehicles, delivery vehicles, corporate fleets or trucks, because these seem to have either money on hand or premium insurance in place.
Cartrack warns that often these scammers aren’t working alone; instead, they have a team which can include physicians, tow truck drivers and mechanics to extract as much money as possible from the scam.
For someone who falls victim to these scams, the effects can be far-reaching and can even be traumatising.
“It also causes a world of headaches because now you have to get an affidavit, make a claim, pay excess, and wait for your car to be repaired,” said the company.
Types of crash-for-cash scams
Scammers use multiple tactics when targeting unsuspecting motorists, including causing actual, life-threatening crashes.
One of these dangerous tactics is known as ‘swoop and squat’, where scammers will use two vehicles, with one ‘swooping’ in front of the other, causing the ‘squat’ vehicle to brake suddenly and cause the target to rear-end them.
Cartrack explained that when someone falls victim to a crash-for-cash scam, it involves a car full of people all claiming injuries, leading to wider fraud involving tow truck drivers or even fake doctors.
Another tactic these fraudsters may employ is to pretend to give an unsuspecting driver a gap to cross an intersection, only to accelerate and bump into the victim’s car as they cross.
The simplest way these scammers target motorists is by driving in front of them and slowing down until unsuspecting victims are close enough, then slamming on their brakes, causing a rear-end crash.
Some may even employ tactics that don’t involve a secondary vehicle, known as ‘jump-in’ or ‘slap and drop’ scams.
These are when a scammer will physically throw themselves in front of a target’s vehicle, landing on the bonnet or the side of the vehicle to make it seem like they’ve been hit, or slap the bonnet with their hand and drop to the ground.
The fraudsters will then either claim from the motorist or their insurance for their “injuries”.
Cartrack shared advice for potential targets, especially motorists who do not have dashcams or telematics to help them out of the situation, including:
- Stay calm and try to refrain from engaging with the other driver. They’ll often act aggressively to try and intimidate you. So avoid confrontation.
- Document everything. Take pictures and videos of both cars, the licence plate and the other driver’s licence. Get pictures of any passengers or lack thereof to prevent false multiple-injury claims later on.
- Do not give them money to “make this go away”.
- Immediately draw up a police report. Make sure you provide the most accurate version of events leading up to the accident and the accident itself.
The company did note that the best defence against these crash-for-cash scams is to fit a high-quality dashcam or telematics.
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