“Crash for cash” (auto insurance fraud)

Entry in progress—B.P.
“flash for cash”
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Crash for Cash
Author: I W Fisk
Edition/Format: Article : English
Publication: Police: The Law Enforcement Magazine, v18 n11 (November 1994): 36-39
Database: NCJRS Abstracts Database
Summary:
The general scenario for a staged vehicular accident to obtain fraudulent insurance money is for ring members to size up potential victims; the suspects then set up an unavoidable collision of some type. The suspects often call for a police report and may report soft tissue injuries but insist on going to their own doctors. Corrupt body shop owners, working with the suspects, will often inflate damage or repair estimates. Corrupt health-care providers exaggerate and falsify medical treatments. Corrupt attorneys file personal injury suits against the insured, and the claims money is pocketed by the ring members. In assessing the likelihood that a traffic accident has been staged, the investigating officers should observe and determine the age and condition of each car (most rings use older cars as crash vehicles). Other important facts are the number of people in the car that was struck, whether the body damage is fresh, whether all of the drivers and passengers come from the same neighborhood, whether participants are from the same ethnic group, and the consistency of the physical evidence with the story as to what happened.
   
OCLC WorldCat record
“Crash for cash” concerns
Edition/Format: Article : English
Publication: PERSONAL INJURY COMPENSATION, 25, no. 9, (2009): 8
Database: British Library Serials
 
BBC
15 August 2013 Last updated at 19:02 ET
Warning over ‘flash-for-cash’ car accident insurance scam
By Richard Westcott
BBC transport correspondent
(...)
It is a new tactic for an already well established crime, called “crash for cash”, where criminals slam on the brakes for no reason so that the victim drives into the back of their car.
 
Police investigators said the criminals will often remove the bulbs in their brake lights so other road users don’t know they’re stopping.
     
Criminal Defence Blawg
“Flash for cash”: New insurance scam a real concern
by RIVERS on OCTOBER 2, 2013
(...)
What has become known as “crash for cash” cases are not new, but this is the latest twist which sees people trying to capitalise on false personal injury claims.
 
A better known form “crash for cash” is motorists slamming on the brakes so that the car behind crashes into them. Some gangs have even been known to remove their brake lights so the car behind has no idea they are stopping.