Insurance Fraud Scams

Examples of insurance fraud scams identified by Allstate

Among other scams, insurance criminals:

Devise elaborate staged vehicle accidents complete with fake injuries to collect on insurance policies.
Intentionally destroy property or vehicles and lie to insurers about the supposed "accident."
Fake injuries to collect disability, workers' compensation and personal injury insurance claims.
Inflate insurance claims.
Make false theft reports.

Types of fraud scams may include:

Swoop & Squat

A suspect vehicle suddenly swoops in front of you and jams on the brakes, causing a rear-end collision. Often the suspect car has passengers who pretend to have painful back or neck injuries, even though the collision was at low speed. The driver and passengers then make large collision and injury claims against your auto policy, for example.
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Sideswipe

Be careful if you're driving in the inner lane of a dual left-turn lane at a busy intersection. Crooks will deliberately ram you if you drift into the outer lane while turning.

Shady Helpers

A stranger may approach you at the crash site, or telephone you soon afterward. Maybe you just had an honest accident, or it was all a setup. Regardless, this stranger tries to convince you to get repairs at a specific auto-body shop, seek treatment from a certain doctor or chiropractor, or visit a lawyer he knows who can help you sue for injuries. Be careful - it may be a setup: That body shop may try to illegally pad your repair bill. The doctor or chiropractor may give you shoddy or no treatment, but bill the auto insurer thousands of dollars. The lawyer may encourage you to sue the auto insurer for thousands of dollars even if you have only minor or no injuries.