Dash cam exposes 'grubby' act on Aussie roads increasing the cost of insurance
Aussies have expressed dismay at the shambolic attempt to ostensibly blackmail the driver or commit insurance fraud.
An Aussie driver has sounded the alarm after being the suspected target in a bumbling insurance fraud attempt after an unknown woman approached his car in the middle of the road and suddenly laid down in front of it. Seconds later a man appears out of nowhere to capture the bizarre scene on his phone – but thankfully it wasn't the only camera rolling.
Dash cam footage captured the surreal situation as it unfold in broad daylight in Quakers Hill in Sydney's west last week. After catching sight of the woman, who calmly approached the moving vehicle, the driver stopped and the woman proceeded to lie down in front of the car, out of sight from the dash cam.
A man appears from the side of the road and begins to record a video — with the intention seemingly to stage an accident.
"These people are scamming drivers in Quakers Hills," a friend of the driver wrote on social media, as a warning to other road users.
"They accused him of hitting the woman with his car and threatened him to pay them."
After witnessing the footage online, many drivers said this was a perfect demonstration of why dash cams can really come in handy. Overwhelmingly, Aussies expressed dismay at the shambolic attempt to ostensibly blackmail the driver or commit insurance fraud, calling the attempt "stupid" and "grubby".
Yahoo News understands the incident has not been reported to NSW Police.
Insurance fraud affects every Aussie driver
This isn't the first time a dash cam has captured a suspected insurance fraud attempt, with a driver getting quite the scare last year in Browns Plains, Queensland after a woman ran out in front of their car at night. She stopped in the middle of the road as the driver slammed on the brakes, with the woman bouncing off the bonnet.
The driver in that incident reported that "several people" approached the vehicle "instantly" after the incident but the driver took off, sensing they were being targeted for a fraudulent claim or a carjacking.
Not only do these dodgy instances impact the drivers involved, it also affects every road user who has an insurance policy.
"The costs associated with exaggerated or fraudulent claims push up the cost of insurance for every Australian policyholder," a spokesperson for the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) recently told Yahoo News about such behaviour.
According to the ICA, in 2023 insurance providers detected $560 million cases of opportunistic insurance fraud for motor and home policies alone, with undetected fraud estimated to cost the industry about $400 million a year.
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