In a worst-case scenario of greed-driven criminal activity, Waurd Demolaire, 25, of Brooklyn, New York, was convicted February 16th by a Queens County jury of killing a 71-year-old grandmother in 2003. Demolaire intentionally struck a vehicle driven by Alice Ross. The contact caused Ross to lose control and strike a tree dying at the scene from her injuries. This intentional “accident” was to form the basis for submitting a series of fraudulent claims to insurance companies in a practice that is sweeping the nation. The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) is today releasing its list of the top ten cities with the most staged accident activity in the nation. This information is derived solely from an analysis of pending NICB investigative files.
While only ten cities are identified, staged accidents and related insurance fraud schemes occur in every state in the nation. The ten cities ranked from most to least activity are:
- 1. Miami, FL
- 2. Los Angeles, CA
- 3. Houston, TX
- 4. Chicago, IL
- 5. Philadelphia, PA
- 6. Tampa, FL
- 7. Cleveland, OH
- 8. Orlando, FL
- 9. New York, NY
- 10. Boston, MA
Staged or “caused” accidents are but one of the numerous kinds of fraud committed daily around the country and they contribute to the $30 billion lost annually to fraud-a loss that is ultimately recovered through increased
premiums.
Robert Bryant, President and Chief Executive Officer of NICB said today, “All of us need to be aware of staged accident scams because all of us are potential targets. NICB has investigators and analysts working around the country with their law enforcement and insurance industry counterparts to detect, prevent, and prosecute these people before they make you their next mark.”
Scams of this type include the following:
- Panic stop is the most basic of the caused accidents. The suspectpositions his vehicle in front of the victim’s vehicle and slams on thebrakes causing a rear-end collision. The victim driver has no warningthat the accident is about to occur.
- Drive down occurs when you try to merge into traffic or pull out of a parking space. The suspect driver waves you to proceed, then intentionally smashes into you. The suspect driver denies waving you on.
- Hit and run occurs when a suspect driver uses a damaged vehicle, drives it to a public location and claims to be the victim of a hit and run. The police are often called to verify damage.
- Sides wipe occurs in a dual left turn lane of a busy intersection. The victim driver in the inside lane drifts into the outer lane and is intentionally hit by the suspect driver in the outer lane.
- Swoop and squat occurs when the vehicle you are following is suddenly passed by another vehicle which “swoops” in front of it. This causesthe vehicle in front of you to stop abruptly, or “squat.” As a result, you are unable to avoid colliding with the rear end of the squat vehicle. The swoop car races away, never to be seen again. The driver of the squat car submits vehicle damage and personal injury claims to your insurance company.
