Be wary of car accident compensation phone fraud
Source: scamnet.wa.gov.au Release Time: 09:56:25 2018-12-09
They may pretend to be from an official-sounding organisation, using names such as ‘Road Accident Helpline’ or ‘Accident Investigation Department’. The caller wants to speak to ‘the person involved in the car accident’ supposedly to help them with their compensation claim. As with so many scams, this one starts with a phone call you weren’t expecting. collision-repair-car
It is clear that the scammers ring lots of people in the hope of striking lucky and reaching a person who has coincidentally been in a road traffic accident recently. The scam caller generally hangs up if the person on the other end insists they have not been in an accident and refuses to give any personal details. This is the best thing to do. Sometimes the scammer mentions the dollar value of compensation that is meant to be available and this has been as a high as $15,000. In one call the scammer said there was $3,000-$4,000 owed to the person in the household who had been in an accident and that all that was required to access the money was a date of birth and address. Unfortunately the lady HAD been in an accident and gave those details. She was told she would receive paperwork, which never arrived. When she called back the number given (07 3371 3562) it was disconnected. The scammer asks for personal details such as name, date of birth, car rego, driver’s licence and bank details. “If you have received a call from an overseas call centre claiming to be Accident Helpline, please be aware that it is not us. Accident Helpline never make cold calls of this nature. We have reported the matter to relevant authorities in an attempt to stop them masquerading as our company. Do not give any personal information about yourself or family;
