Ashpia Natasha was heading to Long Island to run errands last Wednesday when a Honda Civic cut her off in the left lane on the Belt Parkway. She slammed on her brakes and came to a complete stop.
Seconds later, the Honda abruptly went into reverse, slamming into her Acura, and pulled forward again, a dash cam video shows. Could it have been road rage, Ms. Natasha wondered? But she hadn’t passed anyone or had any issues.
The video then showed four people getting out of the silver car, holding their heads as though they had been injured and immediately taking out their phones to take pictures of Ms. Natasha’s car.
“It all happened so fast,” she said, thinking, “Maybe they’re here to hurt me.”
Now she and experts believe it was something else entirely: an attempt at insurance fraud. The incident is what the National Insurance Crime Bureau, an industry group that tracks insurance claims, called “a perfect example of an attempted insurance fraud scheme playing out in real time.”
Ms. Natasha, 31, uploaded the dash cam videos to TikTok in a post that has been viewed more than 67 million times.
Ms. Natasha was not injured in the accident. Her car sustained $8,300 in damages, which insurance is paying for, she said. In a statement, the New York Police Department said the fraudulent collision investigation squad, part of the department’s Criminal Enterprise Investigation Unit, was investigating the incident. It was not clear who the other car’s occupants were or whether they had made a statement about the collision.
A 2019 law made it a felony in New York to stage a car crash for insurance purposes.
It wasn’t until Ms. Natasha got home and reviewed the dash cam footage that she was able to put pieces together.
What happened?
When the occupants of the Honda got out of the car, they began “acting as if they didn’t know what happened,” Ms. Natasha said. They asked for her insurance information and she obliged.
When she told them her husband was coming to help her and was 15 minutes away, they told her they were in a rush, she said. As she went to check whether her car was drivable (it was), the Honda passengers got in their car and drove off.
Ms. Natasha reviewed the dash cam video later and noticed a few new details. First, immediately after the crash, the passengers placed some kind of tarp in their rearview window to block Ms. Natasha’s view. She believes a passenger was swapping seats with the driver.
The video then showed four people getting out of the car — she had seen only three.
The dash cams, which were both in the front and the back of her car, showed a second car, a red Kia, tailing her closely and putting its hazard lights on just before the crash. The red car then pulled in front of the Honda just after the crash, and the fourth person got in the Kia and drove away.
Ms. Natasha said she posted the video to TikTok to spread awareness and maybe get some advice. She’s still waiting for her car to be repaired.
A ‘swoop and squat’ and other staged car collisions.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau describes Ms. Natasha’s case as a version of a “swoop and squat,” in which two cars’ drivers conspire to stage an accident and make it appear as though it is your fault.
But there are other types of staged accidents, including a “left or right turn drive down,” in which a set of drivers wave a driver to make a turn, block their way and crash into the side of their car; and a “curb drive down,” when a driver pulls away from a curb and merges into traffic, only to be deliberately crashed into.
In a statement, the trade group said that it was hard to measure how frequently these kinds of accidents occur, but that they were “aware that complex criminal rings are engaging in this behavior.”
How can you protect yourself?
Alec Slatky, the managing director of public and government affairs for AAA Northeast, said dash cams were the best way of protecting yourself against fraud.
“There’s only so much you can protect yourself against a driver who is determined to ram into you,” he said.
The same safety rules of the road apply to these kinds of situations, he said: Try to leave as much space as possible around you and pull into a shoulder lane if you can. But in many cases, like Ms. Natasha’s, that’s easier said than done.
If you don’t have a dash cam, use your cellphone camera to record any damage to the cars and the number of occupants in other vehicles.
The insurance bureau also recommends avoiding tailgating, and says to immediately call the police to an accident scene. Be aware of “runners” and “cappers,” who suddenly appear at an accident scene to direct you to specific doctors or lawyers. Similarly, be wary of tow trucks that you or law enforcement did not call.
The post How a Dash Cam Revealed a Likely Car Insurance Fraud Scheme appeared first on New York Times.
