Car slamming

We know that there are many insurance frauds circulating with some new ones starting up all the time. Police and the car insurance companies see a trend and the investigation starts but in the mean time all these car frauds that are happening on a daily basis is costing each motorist and increase of £44 a year as car insurance companies start incurring heavy losses due to falsified claims.

Slam ons
Car slamming has been around for some time but recently the demand for them has increased as they are easy to get away with if it is carefully planned and there is no evidence accusing the fraudster of doing so. It involves having an unsuspecting driver in the rear that will have no choice but to crash into the car in front due to them slamming the brakes. Usually it is not the owner of the car that will carry out this accident but another driver who needs the money who will be carrying out this planned and calculated attack. A time and location is usually found before the ‘accident’ is carried out. Sometimes there may be claims for compensation for injuries that have been sustained as part of the crash.

Car slamming is very dangerous and in the worst cases, cars have had to be written off and the value of the car handed over to the owner; this means that the owner will then be free to buy a newer car and in some instances cash in on personal injury claims too. The more people there are in the car, the more compensation you can get. As a result of this, the innocent party (the driver who crashed into the rear) will lose their no claims and have to pay more on their renewal quote the year after.

This type of insurance fraud is crippling the claims hotline as some people are paid to carry out as many as 5 of these staged crashes a day, walking away with a few thousand pounds for a dishonest hours work. Unfortunately these claims are usually successful because if an accident is caused by a driver crashing into the rear of a car, insurance companies assume that they were too close. Unless they have evidence that they were not, they will be liable for all charges.

How to prevent being a target for car slamming?
If you are in a quiet area, most likely a roundabout, and there are only a few cars or less around you, then be careful. Some fraudsters are opportunistic whilst others target certain drivers. Drive slowly and keep a good distance between you and the driver in front. If you find the driver in front showing strange or driving dangerously, stay as far away as possible.