Fake insurance claim against me

[Forf0cksake]

I not long received an email from my car insurance to say they have been informed my car was involved in an accident last week. My cars MOT ran out just over a week ago and I haven't managed to get it into a garage as so many local to me are shut (it's going later this week). So it has been parked outside my house and it definitely hasn't been involved in any accidents. It's too late to phone now but I was wondering has this happened to anyone else and what can I expect to happen next?

Has your car been parked on the road outside your house?
It needs to be on a drive, so you may end up in trouble for that.

They'll investigate it. Where it was meant to have happened etc. You'll have to just wait and see what they say about that.

Are you sure it was a genuine email from your insurance company? That sounds very odd in itself. Why not look out your policy documents tomorrow and contact them using the telephone number on the original paperwork - don' contact them via any number or email address on the email that was sent to you.

There is always a chance someone has duplicated your plates, so it could be an accident reported 200 miles away. Not much you can do right now without the information.

Cloned plates?

Far more common than people realise, as I'm sadly learning atm.

Are you sure it’s genuine? I mean a lot of people get phone calls . I kept getting them and the last time I got one from someone saying about a accident that wasn’t your fault I said which vehicle was this they hung up . They were just fishing or phishing is it called . I think you’d get a letter if your vehicle was involved in a accident not a email .

It's parked in a communal parking area just outside my house. It's definitely my car in question as it's my reg plate, make and model.

@Daisydoesnt
My first thought was it's not legit but after good inspection it does seem to be real. Good idea about using number on original paperwork to call.

The cloned plates tend to be on the same make, model and colour car.

Found mine out due to a speeding ticket that I knew wasn't me. Luckily cctv shows my car outside my house at the time of the offence.

My car was then stolen 5 days later.

Ring the insurance company directly tomorrow.

Hadn't even thought cloned plate but it may well be!

@1FootInTheRave

The cloned plates tend to be on the same make, model and colour car.

Found mine out due to a speeding ticket that I knew wasn't me. Luckily cctv shows my car outside my house at the time of the offence.

My car was then stolen 5 days later.

Ring the insurance company directly tomorrow.

This happened to my mum. It was absolutely shocking but it happens.

Don't reply to the email. Ring the number on your insurance papers.

The chances are that it is either

• Cloned plates

• The other driver has misread the numberplate of the car involved (mistaken an M for a N or got 2 letters or numbers round the wrong way, meaning a MID search has picked up your car)

• The other driver didn't take the number at the time but lives locally and seeking your car parked up (and a similar make/ model) has assumed yours was the car involved.

It is also possible that it's a scam email. If you are unsure, ring the main claims no, they will either put you through or get someone to call you back.

I work for an insurer and our claims staff do email customers increasingly since lockdown as many are working adjusted hours meaning phone calls are more difficult.

If it does turn out to be contact from your insurers, you'll need to provide evidence you were not at the accident location on the date/ time indicated. So anything that places you and your car at home etc is useful. CCTV if you have it. Also take photos asap of your car showing there is no damage again this will help to prove you were not involved.

This happened to me about three years ago. I knew I wasn’t driving on the day/time is stated as I was at work. I called my insurance company and explained what it said. They said they would log it, not to worry and they’d contact me if they needed any more information. It never went any further and didn’t affect my no claims or next insurance claim. Not sure why it happened, maybe people make up fake details ?

Deny liability and wait to see what happens. The onus is on those accusing you to prove it. You don’t need to prove that you didn’t do it.

If you can evidence that your car is undamaged and that you weren't using the car/ were elsewhere on the date alleged that will assist to get matters resolved and the claim redirected a lot quicker. The sooner you can tell your insurers it wasn't you and supply any evidence of this, the sooner they can communicate this to the insurers/ solicitors of the other driver and ensure the claim is redirected/ withdrawn.

@Forf0cksake

It's parked in a communal parking area just outside my house. It's definitely my car in question as it's my reg plate, make and model.

@Daisydoesnt
My first thought was it's not legit but after good inspection it does seem to be real. Good idea about using number on original paperwork to call.

You need to move it or MOT it ASAP. Communal or not it's still part of the public highway and could still be towed.

Communal could be an off road private parking area.

@Ariela

Communal could be an off road private parking area.

If there is access off the main highway then the car can still be taken.

Depends really in the layouts, who owns what, if they are bays at the front etc.
Either way what I'm saying is it's not as straightforward as that and I'd be concerned leaving it for those reasons.

That said, with covid MOT extensions I think the DVLA are probably being a bit more lenient of late anyway.

The other driver didn't take the number at the time but lives locally and seeking your car parked up (and a similar make/ model) has assumed yours was the car involved

That happened to us once, angry bloke knocked on the door insisting my car had knocked his wing mirror off. We hadn't been driving in the place he said when he said but I don't think he was convinced.

Few days later we saw an identical car to mine parked in the local supermarket car park with same number plate except two of the numbers were different. I can't remember what happened with the bloke or the insurance, his claim didn't get very far do I assume he realised his mistake at some point.

It can also be a scam accident claim, usually they try to claim for personal injury, not vehicle damage. Has 1 years ago and it was a bloody nightmare. Our insurance company were wanting to accept the claim but I refused and fought it all the way. The street name given did not even exist in the area they claimed the incident had occurred, they said our steel wagon had reversed in to them and caused them personal damage. It would have killed them if it had reversed into them as the loaded steel would have gone through the windscreen and taken their head off. They could not say whether the vehicle was sign written, or what colour it was. All irrelevant of course because it did not happen. Our driver logs showed where our vehicle was at the time of the supposed incident. We had to pay extra insurance as the renewal fell whilst I was fighting the claim we did get it back later. What was so very frustrating was that our insurance company would just have payed up for ease, despite it obviously being a pile of shite.