Auto frame-up is a type of fraud, the purpose of which is to obtain compensation for damage caused to the health and property of a person who deliberately provoked a traffic accident. This type of activity on the road brings the attacker to criminal liability under Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud), the maximum sentence is 10 years in prison with compensation to the victim for damage to his property and health.
In the article we will consider the most common cases of fraud on the roads, we will describe the course of action of the victim for the further development of circumstances in his favor. If you do not take appropriate measures in relation to those who want to profit from someone else’s account, you will have to spend money on repairing your car, because under compulsory motor liability insurance compensation is paid only if you are not the culprit of the accident; scammers act in such a way that it is you, an innocent citizen, who is responsible for the accident. If you fall into the clutches of an experienced fraudster, you will have to prove your innocence in court. And it’s not a fact that this will succeed.
Why is this type of fraud ineradicable?
Insurance companies are well aware of the activities of persons who trade in auto fraud; according to insurers, about 20% of drivers who purchase an auto liability policy invent fraudulent schemes. The figure seems unthinkable, but these are the statistics. Of course, law enforcement agencies are fighting fraud on the roads, but does this stop professional swindlers? No.
There is a known case of the capture of a citizen who in one year became a participant in 43 false road accidents. The man worked in the Moscow Region - he fulfilled orders on the black market for people who wanted to receive insurance payments. Now the citizen has been punished to the fullest extent, but is he the only one in the Russian Federation?
This “business” does not cease to exist. There are a lot of car owners who want to receive a sum of money from the insurance company. The existence of professional scammers who carry out custom-made auto frauds proves the profitability and relevance of such activities. Now enough has been said to indicate the importance of such a phenomenon as “automatic frame for insurance,” let’s move on to a detailed consideration of the problem and practical advice.
Types of fraud on the roads
In the introduction to the article, we described in general terms a car scam, the essence of which is intentional damage to a car and receiving compensation for damage from the insurance company. There are more sophisticated ways for criminals to make easy money at the expense of unsuspecting motorists.
Damage that was not caused by an accident
Before the accident, the car already had technical malfunctions and defects on the body, but after the accident, the owner adds these scars on the iron horse to the list of damages, wanting to get more money to repair the car.
It is not difficult to pull off such a fraud; you just need to negotiate with the traffic police officer who records the damage in the report. Therefore, many car enthusiasts commit this method of deception. Insurance companies will be required to pay compensation in full, but have the right to retroactively challenge the stated list of damages in court. Since paperwork will cost the insurance company a pretty penny, often insurance organizations either refuse to pay compensation, offering the client an ultimatum - this happens in cases where deception, as they say, is obvious. But it may also happen that the insurance company will pay compensation in full and will not take the case to court. Each case is individual, although everyone understands that if a victim in an accident indicates unimaginable damage that the car simply could not have received in an accident, the insurance companies are not fools, but sensible people who perform their duties in good conscience, which means they are interested in preserving money the organization's fund integrity and avoidance of unnecessary insurance payments.
Since incidents involving additional damage by injured drivers are well known to insurance organizations, it will not be easy to deceive the insurer. In addition, if there is a chance that, in the event of an attempt to deceive, the negligent driver will be blacklisted. And getting into it means causing problems on your own head, because then not a single insurance company will agree to provide services to a person from the list of problem clients.
The essence of the deception is childishly simple: since the insurance company will not pay compensation to a drunk driver, he must be replaced by a sober one. It all happens like this: after an accident, a drunk driver calls a relative who is included in the insurance policy and he pretends to be the injured driver. If necessary, a bribe is given to the traffic police officer, but a relative can arrive before the traffic police. You can also “slap on the paw” so that the employee remains silent about the driver’s drunkenness.
It is easier to deceive if the accident involves not two or more cars, but only one. For example, a drunk driver crashed into a pole or tree. Then the car owner disappears somewhere for several hours, successfully sobers up, and then contacts the traffic police and the insurance company.
We can say that hiding a drunk driver is not a completely terrible type of fraud, much less a systematic violation of the law by the same person. But since many civilians carry out such fraud, the insurance company suffers financial losses. It is simply not possible to prove that the driver was drunk while driving when the latter did everything to replace himself or have time to sober up, or give a bribe.
Independent examination, inflated compensation
A holder of a compulsory motor liability insurance policy who is involved in an accident through no fault of his own is obliged to report the occurrence of an insured event to the company that issued the car insurance certificate within 5 days, so that the organization can schedule an examination and then, after assessing the damage, pay compensation to the car owner. However, many car owners are in no hurry to report the occurrence of an insured event or do it deliberately so that the company simply does not have time to react to the request and take appropriate measures.
The victim sends notification of the accident by mail, but in the application does not indicate his details for quick communication (telephone, email), then the company does not have time to contact its client within five days, and he is free to contact any independent expert, where he will count a very pleasant amount, several times higher than the real one. It is clear that in order to obtain the necessary figures from an independent expert, you will have to pay a bribe or have connections in the organization.
The insurance company will be required by law to pay compensation, the amount of which is indicated in the opinion of the independent expert. But a “fraudster” can make such a move only once, because such fraud is a direct road to the blacklist of auto insurers.
Retrospective car insurance
The method works when the driver has an insurance agent as a friend, who, when an insured event occurs, takes out insurance. The agent-friend will fill out all the documents retroactively, and the further course of action is clear - contact the insurance company and receive compensation. This type of deception is of a private nature, but is very unprofitable for insurance companies and beneficial for the car owner. You can drive without insurance for 10 years, which means you don’t have to pay insurance premiums, and if an insured event occurs, you can quickly get insurance. Thus, the money that the insurance company should have received for 10 years remains in the driver’s wallet.
In addition to the types of deception described, there are others, which, as a rule, are possible due to corruption, connections of fraudsters in the traffic police and insurance companies. You need to know an important fact - most frauds on the roads are carried out with documents, and be vigilant.
How to protect yourself from traffic fraud
There are a number of recommendations that you need to know in order not to run into a scammer and not incur further financial costs. But the first thing you need to remember in order not to fall for the trick of criminals is to simply follow the rules of the road, thereby reducing the chance of being caught in the clutches of a fraudster.
If a driver gets into an accident, he urgently needs to call the traffic police, under no circumstances should he provoke another participant in the incident, or agree to a peaceful resolution of the problem.
Professional swindlers can cooperate with the police, although the police who accidentally end up near the scene of the accident will not be real, which is why it is necessary to call the police officers yourself. Of course, there is not a great chance of running into professional scammers who have fake traffic police officers in their arsenal, but it is possible, and it is better to play it safe.
You should remain calm, because there will be serious moral pressure on you, but react to all kinds of provocations calmly, and even better, see a video and audio recording of the conversation with the participant in the accident and the traffic police officers.
If you suspect that you have stumbled upon a scammer, do not leave your vehicle until the police arrive; Also, use your cell phone to notify your relatives about what happened; it is advisable to call your lawyer.
Do you suspect traffic police officers of violating their powers or do you doubt that they are real? Conduct a video recording, copy down the license plates of official cars of traffic police officers, so that you can then go to court with these materials and win the case.
Violation of traffic rules by drivers is a reason for traffic stops
We can give a number of practical tips, such as reminders to follow traffic rules, but we will miss this point in the article, counting on the vigilance of the motorists reading us.
By violating traffic rules, you can not only run into a professional traffic swindler, but also provoke an ordinary driver to take extraordinary actions. It’s quite a common situation when a driver, irritated by the inadequate driving of another, carries out an auto setup. And there are many drivers on Russian roads who want to receive compensation from an insurance company for damage to their car. The reason for this desire is the poor technical condition of the car.
Many car owners deliberately take risks, getting involved in an accident only in order to receive a tidy sum from the insurer. These individuals do not feel sorry for their iron horse, unlike the unsuspecting victim.
Reminding us to follow traffic rules, we wish all our readers good luck on the roads. And do not neglect the services of insurance companies, because no one is insured against emergency incidents, and only an insurance policy can save you from subsequent financial waste.
Boland 28-06-2005 10:41
In Russia, every tenth insurance payment under compulsory motor liability insurance is received by fraudsters (WAYS OF DECEPTION)
The Russian Union of Auto Insurers (RUA) and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the conclusion of a cooperation agreement. The document was signed by the President of the RSA Andrey Kigim and the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Rashid Nurgaliev.
The agreement provides for measures for the exchange of information between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the RSA on compulsory motor third party liability insurance.
This agreement will help prevent offenses related to misappropriation, operation of vehicles, as well as cases related to insurance fraud.
Compulsory liability insurance for vehicle owners (in common parlance - “motor insurance” or OSAGO), which appeared a year and a half ago, today causes trouble not only for motorists, but also for the insurance companies themselves. People are increasingly finding ways to receive compensation from the insurer that they are not entitled to by law - some by accident, some on purpose. Auto insurance experts admit that fraud is on the rise. Already, at least every tenth insurance payment goes into the pockets of fraudsters.
It is simply impossible to understand all the possible methods of fraud in insurance payments: inventive scammers are coming up with new methods. The Versiya newspaper talks about the most common types of deception.
Notes after an accident
Attributions of damage in road accidents are most common. According to experts, up to 80% of all policyholders are guilty of this to one degree or another. People list a lot of defects that the car received previously. The fact is that the list of damages (in the case of compulsory motor liability insurance) is written down in the act and registered by a traffic police officer. And damages recorded in the report by a traffic police officer are required to be compensated by the insurance company. The company can appeal the case in court only after paying compensation. Office work costs a minimum of $300. It is clear that starting a lawsuit over $200 is simply unprofitable for a company. Therefore, the insurer often simply refuses to pay for some clearly fictitious damages. The applicant, as a rule, does not even argue, the newspaper writes.
Car insurance with damage
This is the second most popular case of amateur fraud. A person insures under an Autocasco policy a car that already has, for example, a serious scratch. In this case, he either hides the defect from the insurance agent or negotiates with him. Typically, within the first month of the policy, the policyholder will seek damages that may cover the cost of the insurance.
Some companies take very simple measures for this. To sign, for example, an Autocasco policy, the car must be inspected not only by an agent, but also by a special expert.
Hiding a drunk driver
According to the law, if the driver was intoxicated during an accident, the case is not considered insurable and compensation is not paid by the insurance company. Accordingly, during the period of time between the accident and the moment of its registration, the driver tries to “sober up”. There are three main ways. You can pay the traffic police officer. You can also call your wife, if she is included in the insurance policy, and state that she was the one driving the car. Thirdly, if you hit a tree, pole or fence, you can simply disappear for several hours and then return to fill out the documents, the publication writes.
But there are also more complex cases. Thus, a BMW of the seventh model crashed into a broken fender on the Third Ring Road. The driver lost control, and the car literally tore its bottom and lower part of the engine. The damage was estimated at 50 thousand dollars. At first, no one had any doubts about the veracity of the accident; the company was already going to pay compensation, but suddenly the conclusion of an expert traceologist arrived. It turns out that an accident with such consequences simply could not have happened. Insurers contacted three organizations that could carry out repair work on this section of the Third Ring. It turned out that none of them disassembled the fender beam. Then they sent a request to the traffic police. The response stated that almost two weeks ago this car had already been involved in a serious accident. That's when he received all this damage. The driver was intoxicated and was taken to hospital with minor injuries. There he rested, and after being discharged, he decided to compensate for the damage. If not for the expert's conclusion, he would have succeeded, the newspaper writes.
Staging an accident
This method of fraud is becoming increasingly popular in Moscow. Let's say your car was damaged in an accident, but the case is clearly not insurable. Then you can set up another accident, a fictitious one, but with an impact in the same place, only within the framework of the insured event. Finding the second participant in the accident is not a problem. In the newspaper “From Hand to Hand” you can find many short advertisements like “Gazelle under OSAGO”. In other words, this same “Gazelle” is ready to help you fake an accident for a fee. Moreover, the number of accidents does not bother scammers at all. Thus, one “record holder” managed to take part in 43 road accidents in 2004.
Deliberately causing damage
This method is usually used when, instead of an old spare part, you need to purchase a new one, but there is no money for it. For example, a headlight that has become cloudy over time. Before the expiration of the Auto Hull policy, some policyholders deliberately break their headlights in order to receive compensation. At the same time, many do not bother with their imagination and often stage accidents that simply could not happen.
Overcompensation
The peculiarity of compulsory motor liability insurance is that the insurance company can compensate for damage only on the basis of a report from an independent assessment commission. In this case, the insurance company itself must appoint an appraiser. The victim must report the insured event within 5 days and receive the address of the expert.
The essence of the scam is that the applicant sends notification of the accident by mail, leaving only his postal address. Naturally, the insurer does not have time to schedule an examination within five days. After this, the applicant goes to any independent examination, where for a certain bribe they calculate an amount several times higher than the real one. With this conclusion, he comes to the insurance company, which is required by law to compensate for the damage. However, it is worth considering that after payment the insurance company can initiate an internal investigation against the unscrupulous client and blacklist him, the newspaper writes.
Such lists are a database where all information about you is entered. The consequences for unscrupulous clients are very different. Companies exchange blacklists and in the future they may all refuse to do business with you. Also, serious personnel services, when hiring a person, raise blacklists of insurance companies, which can cause problems with employment. And banks can check these lists before issuing a loan. In addition, the visa services of foreign embassies pay close attention to your insurance history, so you may simply be banned from traveling, the publication warns.
Retroactive insurance
This can only be done if you know an insurance agent. To put it simply: you get into an accident, call the agent and fill out all the documents with the day before yesterday, and then everything follows the usual pattern.
Framed accidents - setups
The highest qualification for a swindler on the road is the ability to expose himself to an attack by an expensive car so that it turns out to be at fault. Scammers most often work in groups, because they need a good lawyer, a sophisticated technical base, several “their” traffic police officers, and much more.
After the introduction of compulsory motor liability insurance, their work methods changed radically. Fraudsters are now more likely to seek money from an insurance company than from a person. To do this, they need only one thing: for the second participant in the accident to plead guilty. And this can be done without difficulty under a certain psychological pressure. Accidents under compulsory motor liability insurance are also good for fraudsters because the expert does not go to the site, but sees only correctly fabricated documents.
The insurance company has two ways to deal with them. You can persuade the second participant, your client, to sue or pay compensation and investigate on your own. True, this difficult procedure can only be resorted to if the end justifies the means, the newspaper writes.
In the last six months, cases of fraud in order to obtain cash from the second party to the accident have resumed. True, no one swings bats anymore; everything is done very subtly and often even culturally. For example, a victim is driving along the Moscow Ring Road in a new Volkswagen Golf of the fourth model, insured from bumper to bumper. Suddenly, a BMW 7 Series suddenly brakes in front of him. The Golf crashes into it and breaks the rear bumper of the BMW. Three expensively dressed young men get out of the car and talk to each other for a while and call someone, paying absolutely no attention to the driver. Then, after a pause, one of them comes up and calmly says: “I hope you understand what you did. You have the opportunity to pay us 4 thousand dollars today or tomorrow, but already 8 thousand. We will get our money in any case, from us good lawyers."
The victim driver imagines the upcoming showdown and understands that he will still have to pay, because the scammers most likely really have lawyers and their own people in the traffic police, the publication writes.
Every tenth insurance payment goes into the pockets of fraudsters
In Moscow alone, according to statistics, from 1,100 to 1,700 car accidents occur every day. Approximately every second accident is recognized as an insured event, that is, documents are sent for payment. In addition, experts talk about thousands of cars that owners find damaged in the morning. About 10% of them have a motor insurance policy. Using simple calculations, you can find out that about 1,100 applications for payment are submitted every day in Moscow alone. If we continue the calculations and agree with the experts that every tenth recipient is a fraudster, then per year criminals receive about 40 thousand payments from insurance companies, writes Versiya.
The central Moscow office of a large insurance company receives more than 400 applications for payment every day. It turns out that 146 thousand of these applications are received per year. That is, fraudsters get 14 thousand payments from only one insurance company.
Moreover, in 2004, 800 criminal cases were initiated throughout Russia under the article “fraud.” Compared to the scale of fraud, this is simply nothing. Given the fact that the internal security services of insurance companies do not have the right to conduct operational and investigative activities, the question arises: why is the state not fighting fraudsters?
Fraudsters make the most money in the USA
In 2004, the German police managed to expose several organized fraudulent groups that specialized in setups and thefts, each of which numbered up to a thousand people.
In France, fraudsters annually “earn” about 1.5 billion euros. In Canada - 1.5-2 billion dollars. But the most fantastic profits go to fraudsters in the United States, where there are 5 thousand insurance companies with assets of 41.8 trillion dollars. Fraudsters get away with approximately $100 billion a year. Auto insurance accounts for about a tenth of these amounts - about $10 billion. If this figure is compared with the population, it turns out that each family annually pays 1 thousand dollars to insurance scammers, the publication writes.
Experts estimate the volume of the real Russian car insurance market at only 1-1.5 billion dollars. And although our scammers, like American ones, receive approximately every tenth insurance payment, their total “earnings” are significantly less, the newspaper writes.
Insurance companies include losses in the cost of policies
It’s paradoxical, but true: Russian citizens are quite loyal to scammers. Perhaps due to the burdensome MTPL fees for many. However, as Deputy General Director of the Reso-Garantia company Igor Ivanov said, there is no need to be too happy, because insurance companies are not getting poorer. They simply include losses in insurance rates. True, this has a big disadvantage for them: increasing tariffs does not at all benefit the ratings of insurers, the publication writes.
Any large insurance company has an entire anti-fraud department, the so-called insurance claims investigation department or service. These are several experts, all former law enforcement officers.
In total, slightly less than 100 organizations have the right to issue compulsory motor liability insurance. Fraudsters prefer not to “work” with either market monsters or small companies that count every penny. As targets, they often choose average people who have already established decent incomes, but have not yet managed to acquire decent security.
Smusmumrik 28-06-2005 14:24
Yes, this is a very pressing problem. I work in an insurance company. We often have such cases. Recently a woman came from some company. Well, we began to process it.... And then it was time for the examination, the expert discovered that under such circumstances in which she had an accident. There simply could not have been so much damage. We told her that we would accept the documents, but we would send them to the Central Office with a mark of fraud. She immediately screamed and left immediately.
Fath 29-06-2005 11:44
Gee, I just wrecked my buddy’s car yesterday and I’m very glad that I had insurance, although now it’s a pain in the ass... let’s go for a drive, damn it. (Sorry for the OFF)
The desire to “profit” at the expense of others is as old as time, and insurance is a suitable area for fraud. Russian insurance companies believe that from 10% to 25% of policyholders (depending on the type of insurance) are trying to receive illegal payments. Fraudulent insurance events have become commonplace. According to various estimates, domestic insurers annually pay up to 10% of indemnities to fraudsters, while the number of fraudulent schemes is growing from year to year.
Fraud of policyholders in Russia and abroad
Foreign scammers and the fight against fraud
In fairness, it should be noted that the desire to make easy money on insurance is widespread throughout the world. Western insurance companies transfer 15-20% of funds to the accounts of scammers. In America and Canada, up to 80% of fraud occurs in personal insurance. This is explained by the fact that life insurance payments are usually large, and collecting evidence for such events is quite difficult. This is how an accident, and even the death of the insured person, is falsified in order to receive payment.
Falsification of cars is popular in Europe. For example, in France and Germany, cases of arson of cars insured at an inflated cost, as well as staging of thefts and accidents, are not uncommon. Often, during the investigation, organized groups of swindlers with their own doctors, experts and lawyers are identified.
However, in Europe and America the fight against fraud is much more effective than in Russia. There, databases of customer insurance histories have been created and are actively used, and connections with databases of banks and other financial organizations are monitored. In addition, various law enforcement agencies actively cooperate in the fight against fraudsters.
Auto insurance fraud in Russia
The main feature of Russian fraudulent schemes is the active participation of civil servants and law enforcement officers who falsify various documents. At the same time, domestic scammers prefer car insurance. CASCO and OSAGO account for about 70% of insurance fraud cases. Next comes property insurance for individuals, where insurance based on photographs is common. In conditions of fierce competition, for the convenience of policyholders, companies often insure real estate without a preliminary inspection of the property (using a photo). This has become fertile ground for lovers of easy money.
Auto insurance fraud
According to various estimates, fraud with compulsory motor insurance accounts for 15% to 35% of the total number of falsified payments. For CASCO – about 10-30%. In general, in the car insurance market, losses from fraudsters annually account for up to 20% of payments. In monetary terms, the amounts are simply shocking. Criminal schemes, as well as the level of organization of scammers, vary widely. Up to 80-85% of fraud cases occur by individuals, and another 15-20% of crimes are committed by organized groups. In the latter case, criminals often involve insurance agents and traffic police officers. There are much fewer organized groups, but they account for more than 60% of all losses from counterfeiters.
Features of car insurance fraud:
- About 30% are staged accidents;
- 13% are falsifications of the circumstances of the accident;
- About 40% of fraud cases occur when a policy is issued after an insured event.
Schemes of fraudsters operating in car insurance:
- "Auto-setup." Staging an accident to obtain compensation from the insurance company of the “victim” of auto fraud. As a rule, the group of fraudsters includes a traffic police officer who draws up a report of the incident. It is he who provides fictitious documents to the insurance companies of the “culprits” of the accident.
- Scheme of overestimating damage or false invoice from a service station.
- Inflating the cost of the insured car. For example, a foreign car imported to Russia that is falling apart but has retained its marketable appearance is insured at an inflated price. Then according to the scenario: an accident and an application for payment. According to the same scheme, the same car is sometimes insured by several companies. Such cases are identified, but not always, because there is no single database of policyholders.
- Staged carjackings. This is the most difficult case for the insurer. It is very difficult to prove fraud here and the company is forced to pay serious compensation. Recently, the number of cases of staged theft of cars purchased on credit has been growing.
This is an incomplete list of schemes; it changes over time. Fraudsters adapt to the working methods of insurers’ security services and find new loopholes for easy money.
Reasons for the spread of insurance fraud
It is interesting that Russian citizens are very loyal to the facts of deception by insurance companies. This attitude is explained by distrust of insurers dating back to the times of the Soviet “Gosstrakh” and dissatisfaction with their work. Moreover, insurance fraudsters also often do not even consider themselves criminals and in 99% of cases do not admit their offense is serious. According to insurance companies:
- 10% of policyholders are ready to commit fraud;
- 20% comply with rules and laws;
- 70% are capable of falsifying data if they are lucky.
An important reason for the spread of fraud on the part of Russian policyholders is their attitude towards insurance. Around the world, consumers are accustomed to buying insurance in the hope that they will never need it. A Russian policyholder, having spent a considerable amount on a CASCO or MTPL policy, sometimes looks forward to the opportunity when he can recoup his “investment.” Such a car enthusiast will be simply happy if he manages to make money on insurance.
Judge for yourself. According to the All-Russian Union of Insurers:
- 44% of Russians do not consider it a crime to deliberately inflate the amount of damage or to stage an insured event;
- 41% of our fellow citizens believe that this is a crime;
- 15% find it difficult to answer.
The numbers are quite logical, because 34.1% of citizens are convinced that insurers themselves cheat. In addition, 27.3% of respondents believe that companies charge too much for insurance.
Meanwhile, it is more expensive for yourself to justify scammers!
Losses from fraudsters have reached such proportions that they have a significant impact on the pricing policies of insurance companies. The fact is that business costs are almost always passed on to the consumer. Thus, the tariffs for the main types of voluntary car insurance include losses from fraud. According to various estimates, up to 15% of insurance premiums come from such costs. That is why, while listening to the enthusiastic stories of your friends about how they deceived the insurance company, do not forget that such actions also take a toll on your pocket. Just calculate the cost of CASCO on a calculator and multiply the resulting amount by 7-15%.
This type of fraud, called imitation of an accident, appeared earlier than car insurance. Yet many drivers fall into this trap. Some motorists themselves do not mind making money from a fake accident. But insurance company specialists know how to distinguish a real incident from an organized one. And instead of money, its participants can earn criminal punishment.
Read in this article
Ways to deceive an insurance company
Many deception schemes are used to obtain money from insurance companies. The most common of them are:
For this purpose, a policy is issued retroactively. An insurance company employee is involved in the fraudulent scheme.
- Substitution of a motorist. It is practiced in the event of an accident by a driver who is not included in the policy. If in this case we pretend that another person was driving (with insurance), financial responsibility for the damage is shifted to the company.
- Causing additional damage to the car. If the car suffered only minor damage, but you want to get a lot of money, scammers damage it even more after the accident. The same can be done if the car received defects other than in an accident. But the amount of compensation depends on the degree of damage to property, and is paid only when damage occurs as a result of an insured event.
- Falsification of vehicle inspection and examination results. Insurance company specialists and technicians are involved here. The scheme is more often used when it comes to a large amount of compensation. A bribed expert may indicate in documents that the car was damaged more than it actually was. Or it will confirm that the vehicle was damaged as a result of an accident, although in reality it was damaged in another way.
- Simulation of car theft. Its owner can disassemble the vehicle into parts or sell it, changing it beyond recognition. And he himself writes a statement to the police about the theft. This scheme works for those who have a policy.
- Damaged car insurance. The scheme is possible if a company representative participates in it. He will turn a blind eye to the fact that the car has acquired defects, that is, it will appear in the documents as intact. Then they fake an accident, and the owner receives money for repairs, sharing it with a fraudulent friend from an insurance company.
Simulation of an accident for a motorist
If insurance companies know the methods of scammers by heart and still end up deceived, then motorists are even more likely to fall for the tricks of the scammers. The most common cases of artificially creating an accident:
- The driver of the car driving behind demands to let him through. As soon as the victim begins to change lanes for this purpose, another vehicle is discovered on the side, which comes under attack.
- The car is moving at the permitted speed. Suddenly the car in front of him suddenly and unexpectedly brakes. The victim of the scammers does not have time to react and crashes into it, becoming the culprit of the accident.
- A pedestrian suddenly falls under the wheels of a car when it is not driving very fast. This usually happens in a place where visibility is difficult, or the fraudster is helped by a car specially blocking the road. As a result, a pedestrian is hit and demands compensation on the spot for “damaged health.”
From a purely technical standpoint, fake road accidents are organized in different ways. But such car set-ups may involve a traffic police crew “randomly passing by” or simply accomplices dressed in the appropriate uniform, false witnesses, or several cars. Fraudsters behave aggressively, intimidate the victim of deception, but offer to pay immediately at the scene of the “accident” and not call the traffic police. Moreover, the amount of compensation demanded is inflated compared to the degree of damage to the car.
To see how a surveillance camera recorded preparations for a fake accident, watch this video:
Fake road accident with the consent of the participants
Auto fixers use the opportunity to deceive and get money not only from the driver, but also from the insurance company, that is, have a double benefit. A fake victim in a traffic accident negotiates with the unsuspecting other party to resolve the situation peacefully. And he pays the money right on the spot, and he leaves and is glad that he got off easy.
The fraudster then calls the traffic police. A service employee files a case of an accident and issues a certificate to the alleged victim. The document records that the second participant escaped; there is no information about him. The fraudster provides a certificate to his insurer and receives money from him as well.
Sometimes the participants in a real accident also resort to deception by mutual consent. In the event that one of the drivers is drunk, the insurance company will pay compensation to the victim. But then he will demand this money from his drunken client.
Therefore, the victim may succumb to the persuasion of the other party to replace the driver with another person, that is, who did not drink alcohol and was included in the car policy. Or he takes a reward for his consent to deceive the insurer. But this is also a scam. Moreover, both the victim and the one who caused the accident are guilty of it.
Punishment for a fake accident
Faking an accident in order to obtain money from an insurance company is classified as fraud. Moreover, for a crime in this area there is a separate article 159.5 of the Criminal Code, part 1 of which reads:
Fraud in the field of insurance, that is, the theft of someone else's property by deception regarding the occurrence of an insured event, as well as the amount of insurance compensation payable in accordance with the law or contract to the insured or another person, is punishable by a fine of up to one hundred twenty thousand rubles or in the amount of wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to one year,
- or compulsory work for a period of up to three hundred and sixty hours,
- or correctional labor for up to one year,
- or restriction of freedom for up to two years,
- or forced labor for up to two years,
- or arrest for up to four months.
It applies to those who acted alone. For a company of scammers, there is Part 2 of Article 159.5 of the Criminal Code. In accordance with it, each of a group of criminals can receive a fine of up to 300,000 rubles. or compulsory work for a period of 480 hours to 5 years with imprisonment for 2 years. Instead of these measures, the court may impose a prison term of up to 5 years.
What kind of punishment the criminal will receive depends not only on the number of participants in the scam, but also on the degree of guilt of each. If a police officer cheated, he will pay the money to the state and most likely go to prison in accordance with Section 3 of the same article of the Criminal Code. The fine for him will be 80,000 - 500,000 rubles, and imprisonment threatens for up to 2 - 6 years. These measures can be replaced by forced labor for a period of up to 5 years with the minimum possible payment.
To determine the penalty, the amount of damage caused to the victim is also important. If it is large, Part 4 of Article 159.5 applies:
Acts provided for in parts one, two or three of this article, committed by an organized group or on an especially large scale, are punishable by imprisonment for a term of up to ten years with a fine in the amount of up to one million rubles or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to three years or without it and with or without restriction of freedom for a term of up to two years.
Insurance fraud has been quite common since compulsory insurance (MTPL) was introduced. Since insurance is mandatory, and people of very different moral principles own vehicles, the occurrence of fraud in road accidents has become commonplace. According to recent estimates from insurers, approximately 15-20% of policyholders invent fraudulent schemes.
When staging an accident or trying to increase the insurance amount in other ways, one should not forget that a proven crime entails liability under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. This article maximum implies imprisonment for 5-10 years, payment of damages and other restrictions on rights. With such a volume of crimes, companies have to be more picky about concluding contracts with law-abiding motorists, raising tariffs and checking every accident in strict accordance with established standards.
Common Types of Fraud in Road Accidents
After its introduction, there were only a few criminal schemes that were easily exposed. These include recording the damage caused, hiding a driver who was intoxicated, and receiving payment for a car with an existing camouflaged defect. Exaggerated damage still occurs in every fifth case. Let’s say that before the accident the car already had scratches, chips, cracks in the glass, after the accident all this is recorded in the protocol. It is possible to prove imaginary damage if the company works to establish the time of damage.
Since this can only be done after a judicial review, the interested parties usually agree on average figures, without bringing the matter to court action. Insurers look at inflated damage figures as evidence of fraudulent intent and, if desired, can prove this by filing a counterclaim. Drunk driving accidents are not uncommon, and bribery is not an option. Either a relative, for example, a wife, is entered into the protocol, or it is drawn up in a couple of days, when the culprit sleeps it off. All drivers are aware that a DUI report automatically voids them of all insurance coverage.
Intentional damage is practiced if the owner of the car wants to repair his car at someone else’s expense, that is, he is damaged before filing a claim with the insurance company. Stealing your own vehicle and reporting it missing after some time is not a very common, but effective method. In this case, the equipment goes abroad and is then put on the wanted list.
Double payment involves receiving cash from the person responsible for the accident, and then, when drawing up a report, the damage from an unknown person is indicated. When insuring, the circle of persons covered by the agreement is determined. If a person who does not have the right to drive is involved in an accident, then it is possible to negotiate with the inspectors and enter into the protocol the name of the owner who has the right to payments.
Submitting a fictitious accident requires purchasing a wrecked car, registering it, and only then applying for insurance. To carry out such a fraudulent method, you need an insurance company employee who will participate in the crime. With the participation of several people, fraud is classified according to the stricter part of Art. 159, which should not be forgotten, this is a group crime. Not so long ago, one could come across advertisements for a car under compulsory motor liability insurance, when a citizen offered to put his car at risk and stage an accident, then share the benefit received by agreement.
Fraud with forms and policies
Currently, deception is more common in the forgery of documentation. This is beneficial to criminals, since the payments are significant, and research is not always able to prove a fake, which is:
Use of stolen forms;
writing off intentionally damaged forms;
misrepresented coverage amounts;
falsification of road accidents through replacement of the protocol;
use of false forms and seals;
taking out insurance after an incident.
The scale of the use of counterfeits is large, they pop up accidentally and hit the pockets of honest car owners painfully. When purchasing a counterfeit policy, a citizen must understand that in the event of an accident or a check on the road, he may be prosecuted as an accomplice. Once detected, such a false document will trigger a chain of investigation. It is clear that you can receive a written-off form or add a third party to the policy after an accident if the company manager is involved in the case. In addition, the number of false compulsory motor insurance claims from the same company calls into question the integrity of its employees.
There are known cases where insurance companies that have been deprived of their license do not submit clean reporting forms to the RSA and continue to trade in them after closing. The price of a fake is an order of magnitude lower, with such a fake the car is registered and undergoes a technical inspection, but it remains uninsured and in the event of an accident the fact of fraud comes to light.
Methods for detecting counterfeit
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, every fourth case of applying for insurance coverage has certain violations. When purchasing a document, even from trusted companies, you should pay attention to the following points:
The series and number are weakly or not stamped at all, but printed;
absence of metal thread stitching the form;
lack of SAR watermark;
seals and stamps on the document are displayed incorrectly.
Sometimes the form indicates “owner” or “owners,” which is not a sign of a false document. Both options are valid, but used incorrectly by the manager. When checking for fakes using the RCA database, a message will be received that the policy is valid and issued to the purchaser. But if you get into an accident, the owner will not receive compensation under such a fake policy. In practice, there are cases when corner stamps and seals are so identical to the original ones that only after several technical examinations the truth was established.
The scammers issue a receipt of payment, the numbers match the real ones, which another person uses. When a citizen gets into an accident, he contacts the company listed in the documents, where he is denied payments and a trial begins. It is good if the disputant is able to prove that he was misled. Otherwise, he will not only not receive compensation, but will also become a defendant in criminal proceedings.
Fraud when staging an accident is most often carried out by a group of people by prior conspiracy. If such a case is identified, the search for the persons involved begins. Most often, these are managers of the insurer's company, employees of the traffic police or the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and employees of expert organizations. By providing false information to the insurance company, a citizen is forced to pay a group of people who check and draw up documentation. Since fraud in the field of compulsory motor liability insurance has acquired a large scale, insurance companies have begun to cooperate and exchange information about dubious clients, and law enforcement agencies are increasingly opening criminal cases on the topic of fraud in auto insurance.
Auto setups. Beware, scammers!
