The NYPD is investigating the disturbing staged accident on the Belt Parkway that went viral on TikTok — as specialists mentioned such insurance coverage scams are on the rise in New York as a result of fraudsters are “getting away with it.”
A police spokesperson mentioned Tuesday that detectives have interviewed sufferer Ashpia Natasha in regards to the caught-on-dash cam Oct. 16 crash, during which one other driver reversed into her entrance bumper on the busy Queens freeway simply earlier than a number of passengers spilled out and tried to assert they have been harm.
“The investigation stays ongoing by the NYPD Legal Enterprise Investigation Unit’s Fraudulent Collision Investigation Squad,” a division spokesperson mentioned in a short assertion.
Sadly, circumstances like Natasha’s have gotten an increasing number of widespread as brazen crooks seek for scams to run on unsuspecting victims — even old-school schemes like slicing somebody off, slamming on the brakes after which squeezing them for insurance coverage cash afterward.
“It’s an ongoing development, and the fraudsters are getting away with it,” Mark Friedlander, spokesperson for the Insurance coverage Info Institute, a nonprofit commerce group, instructed The Publish on Tuesday.
“They’re in a position to money in on these schemes, and till they’re caught and put behind bars, the schemes aren’t going to decelerate.”
Friedlander mentioned staged accidents just like the one on the Belt Parkway value insurers about $20 billion yearly — and lift the charges for everybody else.
They’re commonest in closely congested areas like California, which noticed 5,366 staged crashes in 2023, and New York, which got here in second final yr with 1,729 such “accidents,” he mentioned.
These numbers are rising, particularly within the New York metro space — the Empire State noticed a 14% improve from 2022 to 2023, Friedlander mentioned, whereas New Jersey noticed a 58% improve, from 158 in 2022 to 250 in 2023.
Most of the time, two vehicles might be concerned — one in entrance of the sufferer and one in again — they usually’ll sandwich their unsuspecting mark between them, Friedlander mentioned.
Then, the conspiracy rings will rope in medical professionals who’re prepared to punch up the severity of the “accidents,” whereas legal professionals on the take will sue the victimized driver on their behalf.
“It’s not simply the folks inflicting the fraudulent accidents,” Friedlander mentioned. “It’s a much wider concern than just some folks in a car inflicting this. It’s actually wonderful.”
And so they’re leaving harmless victims within the lurch — like Natasha, whose incident was a “excellent instance of an tried insurance coverage fraud scheme taking part in out in actual time,” in keeping with a rep for the Nationwide Insurance coverage Crime Bureau.
The Belt Parkway appears to draw these crooks — one other eerily comparable incident occurred on the identical highway not too long ago, though it’s not clear when, in keeping with a video posted on Reddit two days in the past.
In that clip, a special silver Honda races up subsequent to somebody driving in the suitable lane and cuts them off — and predictably slams on the brakes.
The sufferer crashed into the scammers, who then pile out of the automotive, strolling slowly and holding their necks as they amble round.
It’s not clear how the incident ended up, or if police imagine the 2 crashes have been dedicated by the identical crew.
The NYPD didn’t reply to a request for remark Tuesday.
However there are some methods for motorists to guard themselves from changing into the following sufferer, together with being a defensive driver (typically unattainable in New York) and putting in a dashcam, such because the one Natasha used to catch her would-be grifters.
She’d been driving on the three-lane parkway on Wednesday morning when the crew — driving a silver Honda Accord — out of the blue switched lanes, lower her off and slammed on the brakes, in keeping with a video she later posted to TikTok.
She hit her brakes too, narrowly avoiding a crash.
That’s when the opposite driver stopped within the shoulder-less lane, hit the hazards and backed into her.
Then 4 folks received out of the Honda, appearing like they have been injured as they inspected the injury. A crimson Kia pulled up, picked up the suspected driver and took off.
Tom Burke, a retired NYPD detective who makes a speciality of auto crime, mentioned this implies he was the ringleader.
“He’s the pinnacle man — he’s the man who went out and recruited these different morons to be victims in his rip-off,” mentioned Burke, who can be an adjunct professor at John Jay Faculty of Legal Justice in Manhattan and a board member of the New York Anti-Automobile Theft & Fraud Affiliation.
“That’s why he leaves the scene,” he continued. “He’s the primary man, he’s the one making the cash. The opposite individuals are simply idiots. You’ll be able to’t make these items up.”
If there had been no dashcam recording, the remaining might need performed out precisely how Friedlander suspected.
“These individuals are going to undergo the motions,” Burke mentioned of the passengers.
“They may receives a commission a number of hundred {dollars} … and if all of them complain that they’ve a bodily damage, they’re going to go to some quack physician who recommends bodily remedy, and many others. they usually’ll hit the insurance coverage firm for that cash.”
Burke added that this racket — which the Nationwide Insurance coverage Crime Bureau calls a “swoop and squat” — tends to be extra prevalent in outdated Jap bloc international locations.
However American crooks have picked it up.
“Stuff travels backwards and forwards,” Burke mentioned. “And individuals are at all times copying a rip-off that works.”
“And so they’ll do it till they begin getting locked up — after which they’ll do one other one,” he continued.
“Such a stuff has been occurring for ages.”