Insurance Scam?

ergonomics

Hi all,

Just said I'd share an experience I had last night.

I was driving home last night around 9pm so the roads were quiet. There were two cars in front of me; Car A, then Car B and then me. Car A was going about 60km/h in a 100km/h zone and Car B was right up behind them. In parts the road was really wide and straight with a broken white line but Car B didn't appear to have any intention of overtaking so I decided I'd overtake instead.

Every time I got near Car B to overtake, Car A would lightly tap the brakes and then Car B would slam on, going from 60km/h down to about 10km/h. I saw this happening to a few other cars who had been in front of me but overtook so I was expecting it and as such it I was able to back off without it impacting me.

I eventually overtook both cars and went on my way but then I started thinking about what they were up to. I had to overtake both cars as they weren't letting me in between them. Anyone else who overtook had to do the same. Car A was a pretty non-describable car but Car B was an 07 BMW and there were 4 people inside it. I think what was happening was that Car A and Car B knew each other. Car A would lightly brake and Car B would slam on hoping I would go into the back of them. They'd claim off my insurance and the 4 people in the car would surely claim injury compensation too. Car A would drive off but the fact that they had braked and I had seen them brake would show that Car B didn't slam on for know reason.

I'm sure we've all heard of similar stories before but I had never heard of it happening in Ireland so I thought I'd share this! I could be completely wrong but better to be wary I guess.

MagicMarker

It's clearly the most logical explanation.

chasm

Are you sure car A wasn't towing Car B and they were afraid you would try to pull in beween them?

ergonomics

chasm wrote: »

Are you sure car A wasn't towing Car B and they were afraid you would try to pull in beween them?

I thought of that and so I checked as I was overtaking. Car B definitely weren't being towed.

I could be completely wrong. I'm not saying the above is definitely what they were doing.

Zubeneschamali

ergonomics wrote: »

I'm not saying the above is definitely what they were doing.

Not saying you're wrong, but why would they do this in a big BMW? That's 30K worth of car, a lot of upfront cash for a scam.

taintabird

Sounds plausible I have heard of similar things happening like that, its a quite common occurrence in the UK apparently

Satanta

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

Not saying you're wrong, but why would they do this in a big BMW? That's 30K worth of car, a lot of upfront cash for a scam.

Seen a couple of cash for crash clips on the net where it was expensive cars being smashed. In this case a merc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NqXGtvI9MQ

Also read an article in my local paper (Donegal) last weekend about some crash for cash attempts being reported to the Gardai. Defo time to get a dash cam

Tea 1000

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

Not saying you're wrong, but why would they do this in a big BMW? That's 30K worth of car, a lot of upfront cash for a scam.

Maybe they owe money on it and can't afford to pay back. One thing I've learned is that people are fit for anything.

-Corkie-

You should have called the cops. As Vectra said in another thread the need for dash cams is very important.

slimjimmc

Was involved in a similar situation years ago on the N9 DC as a passenger in a friend's brand new 4x4.
We were in lane #2 in medium-heavy traffic, moving about the same speed as lane #1 and lane #3 was moving faster.
A car containing 5 "gentlemen" which was behind us moved up our inside and tried to squeeze out in front, i.e. undertake, even though there wasn't enough room between us and the next car in our lane. Fair enough, but they did seem to pay excessive attention to my friend's 4x4 as they slowly moved past, so much so that all the passengers at one stage had turned around and were watching us though the rear window.

My friend got suspicious of this and, when he got the chance, moved into lane #3 to avoid being stuck behind them only for them to move across into lane #3 too, all the while keeping an eye on us. Friend promptly moved back into lane #2 and they moved into lane #2 to stay directly in front of us. He soon got us out of the situation by dropping back to give a good gap (which was quickly plugged by another car) and powered out around them and stayed ahead.