Insurance Fraud Attempt Captured In Broad Daylight Should Be All The Motivation You Need To Finally Pick Up A Dash Cam
You can literally see the moment one of the scammers realized they're being recorded
An attempt to stage an auto accident in Queens, New York, was thwarted all thanks to a simple dash cam.
The video was posted to TikTok by Ashpia Natasha aka @ashpianatasha4. In the description she explained that she was driving east on the Belt Parkway in the middle lane when an eighth-gen Honda Civic coupe suddenly cut her off. The car slammed on its brakes, likely hoping that Ashpia would rear end them. Her braking was too good for the scammers however, as she comes close but doesn't make contact. Ashpia mentioned that a second vehicle — a red Kia Sportage — was also following closely behind her.
@ashpianatasha4 Insurance fraud attempt in Queens, NY 10-16-2024 PART 1 I was driving in the left lane of the Belt Parkway going East bound towards the Southern State Parkway. The silver Honda (LBB 8917) was in the middle lane, and they cut me off and slammed on the brakes coming to a full stop hoping I would hit them. I did not hit their car and because of that they reversed into my car for collision and acted as if they were injured while coming out of their vehicle. I believe the intention was to say I hit their car for insurance fraud purposes. They had a tarp covering the rear windshield which fell off once they hit my car. You can see the driver is a male wearing a hat and you can see him switching to the passenger seat as well as the movement of the car before anyone gets out. The first three passengers exit the car pretending to be hurt, while the fourth passenger who was driving slips out through the passenger seat and gets into a second vehicle. That second vehicle was a red KIA SUV (KJH 3340) which was following me from behind and keeping distance so they wouldn't slam into me. The red KIA drove around and picked up the driver to get away. The remaining three people's demeanor changed once one of them noticed the dashcam. They only came out of the car with their phones ready to record the damage to both cars. They were quick to ask for my insurance and quickly left after the exchange. I called the police at the time of the incident and reported it as an accident, and the police told me they no longer go to an accident if no one is injured and they are willing to exchange information. I did not realize at the time that the driver switched and left in another car or that it was a set-up as I was driving by myself, and everything happened so fast. #queensny #car #caraccident #exposed #newyork #brooklynny @nbcnews @abcnews @nypd @geico @allstate @pix11ny
Suddenly the Civic jerked forward, stopped and then reversed into Ashpia's car. She can be heard on the phone with her significant other freaking out — as she should be — because she doesn't understand what's happening. This is a key part in the incident. If you pay close attention, the rear window of the Civic had what looked to be a blanket covering it; Ashpia mentions that it looked like a tarp. The collision with her car caused it to fall. Right after the collision, the Civic moves forward and the driver puts it into park. Watching closely you can see some commotion in the car that appeared to be the driver of the car—a male wearing a hat—switching places with the female passenger after the hit.
Four people then exited the car, acting as if they're hurt and in shock at what happened. The male who was originally driving held his head as he looked at the back of the Civic. Another passenger and the woman who was in the front passenger seat took out their phones to record the damage of the cars. You almost miss it, but the fourth passenger slipped out and got into the Kia Sportage that was following Ashpia; the Sportage had moved in front of the Cvic after it stopped.
As the two women recorded, the guy that was "driving" pulled out his phone and walked closer to the front of Ashpia's car to get a better look at the damage. You can literally see the moment he noticed the dash cam recording before the video ended. A second video posted showed the actions of the Sportage that was following her, likely in an attempt to cut into traffic after the collision so it could move to the front of the scene.
Ashpia says that they were quick to ask for her insurance information, which it seems she gave them as she says that they quickly left after they got the info. She says she called the police when the incident happened but they told her they wouldn't be coming. Apparently, they don't respond to accidents anymore when there are no injuries and a willing exchange of insurance information has occurred, which is wild. So far she hasn't posted an update as this all just happened a couple of days ago but we'll keep an eye out for any updates.
Staged auto accident fraud is big business in the U.S. The National Insurance Crime Bureau says that because of this kind of fraud, billions in insurance claims are paid out every year. This is all just a friendly reminder that we should all be going out to buy dash cams so we don't get caught up in a situation like this.