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Accident Reconstruction Research: Insurance Fraud

Common Schemes-Auto Fraud
A greater understanding of the tenacity and creativity deployed by the defrauders, in achieving their goals, is to examine some of the common schemes deployed to perpetuate "fraud in the fast lane."  NICB lists the following as some most common schemes:

Swoop and Squat.
In this scenario the accident is prepared by employing a pair of defrauders using their own separate vehicles on the highway or wide city street.  Defrauder 1 is the "squat" vehicle, who positions himself in front of the target vehicle (unsuspecting motorist) when defrauder #2, who is the "swoop", suddenly and without warning pulls in front of the "squat" vehicle and stops.  The "squat" vehicle (who is in front of the target vehicle), in response, suddenly applies his brakes at which point the target vehicle (having little or no time to react) usually collides into the rear of the "squat" vehicle.  Meantime, the "swoop" leaves the scene of the accident.  The victim feels helpless and ashamed for not responding in time to avert the accident.  In this scheme the target or victim is legally at fault for not maintaining a safe distance or control over his vehicle.

Drive Down
In this contrivance, the target vehicle attempts to merge into a lane of moving traffic.  As the target vehicle waits for the opportunity to merge, the defrauder yields and motions to the target vehicle to proceed with the merge.  As the unsuspecting target driver begins merging, the defrauder's vehicle intentionally collides with the target vehicle and then vehemently denies giving the target vehicle the consent to merge into traffic.

Hit and Run
In this scenario, the defrauder, while employing a prior damaged vehicle, files a police report claiming to be a victim of a hit and run.  The defrauder uses the police report to verify the damage to his vehicle and then sends the claim to his insurance company.

Paper Accidents
Just as the scheme suggests, paper accidents occur only on paper.  The defrauder or the owner of the vehicle files a false accident report claiming a new damage on his vehicle, when in fact, the damage was pre-existent, to collect insurance money.  Generally, the defrauder uses this tactic when he had damaged his vehicle in a manner that his insurance company would not honor his claim.

Side Swipe
In this contrivance, the defrauder selects an unsuspecting motorist as a target at a congested intersection which have dual left turns lanes.  The victim, generally, while completing a left turn in the inner lane gradually drifts out into the outer lane, whereupon the defrauder (operating on the outer lane) intentionally collides with the target's vehicle.  Generally, the intersection sites are chosen by the defrauder after exhaustive surveillances to determine the presence of the following favorable conditions: (1) frequency of autos drifting from inner to outer lanes (or vice versa) (2) the concentration of traffic and(3) the frequent sightings of late model vehicles.