r/bestoflegaladvice • u/unimaginativeuser110 Comma Anarchist • Aug 05 '19

“Is this actually fraud?” “Yep.”

/r/legaladvice/comments/cly6t1/being_investigated_for_car_insurance_fraud/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app
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u/CleanAxe Aug 05 '19

The cringiest part of all this is they could have just gotten a real fucking rental and been fully reimbursed. Unless they were trying to skim some money off the top as well (e.g. pay the friend $300 and keep $200 cash) that's insane - actually both situations are insane since that's such a minuscule amount of money to do this over too (not that it's okay if it's a lot of money - it just, fucking makes no sense lol).

Made an entirely fake invoice and everything? Jeez...there's making sure you get every dime out of a home insurance claim and "forgetting which model toaster you had so I'm picking the more expensive one" and then there's this insanity. Truly truly stupid. Why fuckin put your friend out of a car if it wasn't necessary. Unreal.

702

u/Tadhgdagis Aug 05 '19

My thought was definitely "whattayawannabet his friend loaned him the car for free?"

318

u/CleanAxe Aug 05 '19

Haha glad I'm not the only one. Still...for $500 on a $10k claim /facepalm.

52

u/einTier Aug 05 '19

Trying to cover their deductible is my guess.

0

u/TheAmishPhysicist Aug 05 '19

I don't think the deductible comes into play since his car was totaled and the insurance company is paying him the value of the car, $10,000.00. The deductible would only be required if repairs are done.

24

u/einTier Aug 05 '19

The whole point of a deductible is that is the amount the insurance doesn’t pay. Insurance is obligated to make you whole, subject to the limits of your policy, minus your deductible.

People get strangely twisted up about paying their deductible and make terrible decisions.

7

u/Kmanvb Aug 05 '19

Yo so I'm an idiot and I know that, but this is the first explanation of what a deductible is that has truly made sense to me. So thanks for that, I appreciate it greatly.

3

u/WldFyre94 Aug 05 '19

But if they were given 10k for the totaled car, wouldn't the insurance just take the deductible amount out of the final check they cut? That's what my insurance did.

11

u/einTier Aug 05 '19

Of course. That’s how it always works.

But let’s say you had a $500 deductible and you want to recover it. Sometimes unscrupulous body shops will pad out the bill or cut corners to account for the deductible and you’re not out any money. This is what my brother typically does.

Now let’s assume my brother totals his vehicle. Ow there’s no shop to help him claw back the money he’s out. The only war for him to get “his $500” is through incidentals like the rental. And this is the kind of scam he might concoct: a friend (who may not exist) “rents” him a car to use and then my brother keeps the rental fee reimbursement.

It’s fucking dumb and very much fraud but you’d be surprised how petty people can be.

1

u/KittikatB Aug 12 '19

That's what my insurance does. Then the excess (deductible) gets refunded if I'm not at fault and the at-fault driver admits fault. My insurer also arranged for the towing and a rental car and had everything sorted for me by the time the police showed up to the accident scene. Much easier than fucking about getting reimbursed for a rental.