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Post by Alanović on Oct 5, 2016 10:07:01 GMT
I received a text message yesterday purporting to be from my car insurers. It contained a phone number and a reference number and asked me to contact them urgently. It smelled like a scam, so I ignored the number but called them on their general advertised number so I knew who I was talking to.
I got transferred to the claims department where they confirmed the contact was genuine – somebody is making a claim for damage and personal injury against my policy as an upshot of a collision. I have not been involved in any collision, and yet the claimant has given my registration and correct make and model. The collision happened some 35 miles from home, so not in an entirely unlikely location but not somewhere I have visited in over 10 years. It is alleged to have happened early in the morning on a weekday when I would usually be commuting/school running locally.
My insurers have now said they will go back to the claimant’s solicitor and reject the claim on the basis that I wasn’t involved, and if they respond and insist it was me I’ll have to have a structural engineer inspect my car for damage/repairs.
Bloody hassle. So have they got the wrong number plate or so someone pulling a fast one?
I'm just going to pop down to my work's building security and see if the CCTV covers the entry barriers. Would be able to put my car here undamaged about an hour after the alleged collision.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2016 10:12:10 GMT
Mmmmm. If they got your registration number and your make, model and colour then somebody is lying. If its the correct reg but a different make, model and/or colour then someone has made a mistake.
If there is a liar involved it could be the person purportedly involved in the accident, whoever cloned your reg. number or the solicitor.
Do you know what level of ID they had for you, the car or your insurance?
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Post by Alanović on Oct 5, 2016 10:40:18 GMT
They've got my reg number, make and model correct. Colour not so much. I think they're saying silver, although my car isn't the darkest of blues. Apparently they also have a name and address for the alleged driver involved, which is not somebody on my insurance policy and is an address again about 35 miles from my home, but in another town to the alleged collision.
I can imagine a car of the same make model and colour as mine having a very similar number plate - dealers register cars with sequential numbers these days and the car registered one before/after mine could easily be the same make and model, as the batch of numbers will be allocated to the same dealer.
It's an odd one.
I think my insurers have been contacted by a personal injury company as they're talking about the claimant's solicitor contacting them, rather than the claimant's insurers.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Oct 5, 2016 10:48:24 GMT
Which of your cars does this relate to? Don't know much about the Mazda but your E was bought recently and locally. What I'm thinking is that if that car was originally bought new from a local dealer, there may be other Es locally with similar plates, and this could be a simple case of someone misreading a D as an O. Colour would be worth checking; yours is an unusual blue rather than the more common silver or grey, so if that detail is right in the report it starts to look more like a scam.
Our entry gates work on ANPR, which may be handy in a case like this if one ever comes my way. I hope this one doesn't cause you too much trouble.
Edit: I see you answered most of my questions before I'd finished asking them!
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Post by Alanović on Oct 5, 2016 10:51:40 GMT
Aye. It's da Moic, not da Mazda.
I've asked security here to see if they can grab a picture, they're looking into it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2016 11:27:47 GMT
I don't think its the obvious scam. They'd need more than their word to claim against you and they would surely know that it won't stand up; be the defense an engineer's report, an alibi for you or the car, or whatever.
I guess it comes down to cloned number plate or a mistake.
I wonder if the name/address they have is genuine?
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Post by Alanović on Oct 5, 2016 11:38:59 GMT
I hope it's not my car carrying a cloned number plate. VIN and engine numbers check out, the plates seem to be originals which state "Mercedes Corporate" in the small print rather than a dealer's name. I'm think I'm OK on that one. Perhaps someone else has purchased a cloned car. Poor sods. And they've crashed it. Oh dear.
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Post by Alanović on Nov 2, 2016 10:04:51 GMT
Answer: mistaken identity. My insurers have closed the claim and removed it from my record, the claim has been re-directed to the correct insurer to deal with. Phew.
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Post by Humph on Nov 2, 2016 10:05:45 GMT
Phew indeed.
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