Warning: Car Insurance Claim Scam

eatwell365 on 16/04/2016 - 13:40
Last edited 16/04/2016 - 15:54

Yes it is Saturday.

I was relaxing at home watching Game of Thrones DVD bought a while back from OZB deal. So tired after Fx and pump this morning.

The home phone rang and Mark from Injury Helpline Service called about a claim lodged by the other party who was at fault in a recent accident. Mark tried to confirm some detail with me. When did the accident happen? Anyone was injuried?

Actually there was an accident in recent week at home. The other car scratched the door of my parked car in car park. The driver wanted to walk away not knowing people in my car behind the tinted windows. I am yet to made the claim against the other party. So it matched well with the reason for call.

But there is something in me that I do not trust phone calls with Indian accent (sorry!! just because scam is too common)

I asked who I am speaking to, what the name of company he works for and contact number. Mark called his supervisor who avoided to give me details and kept asking me questions. He said they were from government department for claim on green slip to verify about the accident and collaborate with insurance companies like Coles/NRMA/Aami.

The supervisor started to get mad when I repeatedly refused to give any details without verification. He said goodbye.

Looked up in the net after. There had been warning from WA government and others about insurance claim phone scam - addition to the existing Microsoft or Telstra scam.

search

Which Australian government department would work so hard on Sat?

I may be the last person on planet Earth to know about this but hope it will help others.

Enjoy to read your thought and experience.

General Discussion

Comments

  • Kevan2 on 16/04/2016 - 13:51

    Scary. Who, how was your phone details handed out?

    Did you post on social media?

    • eatwell365 on 16/04/2016 - 15:42

      we rarely use or give out home phone number, so 95% calls are rubbish callers - we just know.

      think Australian phone numbers are not silent unless premium is paid - correct me if this is no longer the case. Number is in do not call registrar.

      so no surprise if scammers got Australian families' numbers out from phone companies.
      this can happen to any one of us unless our government look into the legislation/regulation.

      spoken to a friend, recently given all personal details to ATO scam before finding out it is a scam.

      • vikvance on 16/04/2016 - 16:37
        +3

        Our home phone number is silent, but we still get scam calls.

        The scammers appear to just randomly dial every single possible Australian phone number.

        The only way to avoid the scammers is to screen all calls through an answering machine.

  • Euphemistic on 16/04/2016 - 14:17
    +3

    Has this one plenty of times. Played along once, they wanted to approve my claim or some such so I told them that was fantastic as I'd been DUI and was told there would be no payment. Got put through to a supervisor without asking for it!

  • sparkles on 16/04/2016 - 15:21
    +5

    I got the automated Australian Tax Office tax avoidance and tax evasion phone call yesterday. Apparently, according to the robot talking, a warrant is out for my arrest and I should contact my lawyer. Or instead of waiting for the registered letter that has been sent, I should call them…..I guess, so they can rort me out of money. I can actually see how older, vulnerable, gullible or less skeptical people fall for these things.

    I'm curious, at what point in one's pathetic life, does "professional scammer" become a valid career? How do these people genuinely look themselves in the mirror?

    • eatwell365 on 16/04/2016 - 15:52

      The big boss thinks it is a business not scam. these con artists pray daily our a$$.

  • kima on 16/04/2016 - 17:41
    +4

    i get these often. i waste their time going along with the scam .. yeah but which accident? there are 3 people here who had accidents so who are you calling for? lol - always confuses them because they don't know what to say

    they are from India (Indian accents, long pause before they answer, crackly line) clearly not in Australia so they avoid the do not call register and our laws.

    I don't know what the scam is but they say they are seeking compensation for your injuries and you know its a scam

  • airzone on 16/04/2016 - 19:41
    +7

    I had a call at work from "Microsoft" the other day… Started asking all these details so I said screw you, contact my account manager… He says he doesn't know who that is and so on, so I ask for his contact details.. No return phone number, but he gave me an @microsoft.com email.. Probably fake, but anyway I call up my account manager on the other line… Whoops, this guy is a license auditor, and we have a surprise audit.

  • catbrain on 16/04/2016 - 19:46

    As far as hardworking government departments go, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner regularly works on Saturdays to catch up on contacting people who have lodged a complaint. But that's the only org I know of that would actually contact a member of the public, rather than just working overtime on a Saturday to catch up on backlog (which happens quite a lot at state and federal level).

    • GameChanger on 16/04/2016 - 20:15
      -8

      No such thing as a hard working govt department, they're grossly over paid for the amount of work done.

      If they're working on Saturday with over pay, I hope someone audits them for wasting tax payers money.

    • peteru on 17/04/2016 - 22:28
      +1

      The passport office also works weekends and most public holidays. What's even more surprising is that they are actually helpful, being a government department and all that.

  • MITM on 17/04/2016 - 08:39

    … ask them "got a pen?" then put it in writing and send it to my PO Box XXXX (Hang up).

    Don't waste your precious time with these people - they get paid by the hour calling you/your number - you DONT get paid for talking to them.

    • Euphemistic on 27/04/2016 - 13:22
      +1

      But if you know it is a scam and you string them along for a while you prevent them from ringing someone else who is gullible.

      • Mumbles on 27/04/2016 - 18:21
        +1

        This is exactly what I do! The White Pages has me as the first with my surname. I detest the idea of these scumbags taking advantage of the vulnerable and elderly people. Am so good at baiting them and challenging their technical expertise that they put me on speakerphone + record me. At that point I turn the radio on and switch it to the Christian radio station. Usually there is a new team of 2 or more Indian senior con-artists listening and thinking why the heck the switchboard handed me over to them and keep listening to the Christian radio.

        From personal experience I highly don't recommend doing this for OzBargainers who actually rely on their landline for business. Things can backfire and they add your number to a suckers list which encourages other scam call centres to start calling the landline.

        I'm weird as I love wasting as much telephone time of the new scam callers. When they flood in. I mute the ringer on my house phone, set my answering machine to pick up after maximum number of rings (30 seconds), let them listen to my normal 60 second voice message. Occasionally a caller is silly enough to sit through the voice message and leave a message.

        Am not sure but I think Telstra puts a stop to the flood of calls after about 5 days of being hammered by overseas calls. That's the price for telephone plans that allow unlimited free calls to international landline.

        Its all fun for me cause I gave up on my home landline years ago since it is listed in the White Pages and mainly received scam + charity call centres. Got fed up with the interruptions to my cooking and sleep to answer the landline so told friends and family to only call my mobile.

        • kima on 02/05/2016 - 22:31

          you can get your number on private, i find it helps because they don't list it on whitepages

  • Mumbles on 25/04/2016 - 18:02
    +3

    I'm a bit weird cause I enjoy dealing with insurance solicitor scammers these are way easier to confuse than the Microsoft virus scammers.

    I go all legal speak on them.

    1) You said someone had an accident on my property. Give me that person's name, address, contact details so I can contact them, this is the first I heard of the issue.
    2) You said you are from a law firm representing somebody for an accident claim for some location. What state am I in? What state is your law firm? Cause different states have different accident laws.
    3) Wow. You don't even know the name of the state or address that your client fell over… What? You mean my property … What state is my property in?
    4) [They hang Up].

    Takes 2 minutes, no stress and lots of fun.

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