UKH

I was involved in a road accident last year, which was dealt with by my insurers and I've received payment for the damages to vehicle and property.

I did suffer some minor injuries, but just bruising, a light graze and a stiff neck - healed within a week and so didn't bother claiming for any of that. A bystander that heard the crash phoned an ambulance (which was embarrassing!) and I did get it checked at A&E, who confirmed my view of no breaks - but only because I happened to be going to the hospital anyway to visit a relative being treated there.

I've just had a call from someone saying they're from the insurance company and just going through closing the accounts and checking I was happy with the payments (which I am), but then wondering about claiming for personal injuries.

The call was from a mobile number and the caller was quite evasive about why she wasn't calling me from a land line, saying she was sending me some paperwork and I'd get a follow-up call from the legal department on an 0800 number later.

I strongly suspect this is a bunch of ambulance-chasing cowboys trying to get me to make a claim for personal injuries - which I have no intention of doing.

Anyone else come across this approach?

Given the number of calls about 'the accident which you were involved in' I get, unless they sent paperwork which matched my claim reference number I'd put it firmy down as a fishing scam and ignore.

At the very least I'd expect them to answer my security questions before I entered any discussion (eg date of accident, my vehicle reg and postcode). Doesn't prove they are legit so still be wary of giving details, but does a good job of chasing off the totally random cold callers. 

If I've time to kill I sometimes play along and get really enthusiastic about making a claim, then ask if the fact that I died in the accident might be an issue. Sometimes it takes a while for that comment to sink in...

If the other insurance company has admitted liability your insurance company can ###sell### your details to a lawyer. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/motorinsuranc...

That's a 2011 article so I don't know if it's still happening.

I would have thought/hoped that would no longer be possible due to GDPR.

They are trying to scam you into potentially being party to a fraud.  They'll offer to do it 'no win, no fee' (and split the ill-gotten gains with you).  However, at some point you'll have to sign something basically saying that you attest to the truth of the claim (that they've made up based on a series of highly leading questions) and absolving them of any responsibility...  

At least in your case you were actually involved in an accident.  I've lost count of the number of times I've been contacted about injuries so serious that I have no recollection of them at all.  

I've not provided them with any personal information and nor did they ask me to confirm my details, which I'm also suspicious about, but they did have the details of the accident - date and so on.

Still no sign of the follow-up call, so will see what happens.

My insurance company are satisfied that I was clearly not at fault, have settled the claim on that basis, refunded my excess and I have an email to prove that is the case, which I needed when my wife recently re-did her car insurance.

They are currently trying to recover their money from the other insurers and the other party is now disputing fault and claiming joint liability, so the whole lot is probably off to the solicitors anyway.

Indeed - I've no intention of signing anything, as I've no intention of making any personal injury claim. And if I was, it wouldn't be through some random bunch that phoned me up out of the blue.

I wasn't seriously hurt and it would be ridiculously easy to prove that it hasn't caused me any ongoing problems/hardship as a result and I'd end up being done for fraud, which really doesn't appeal.

I've had plenty of the usual calls, usually responded to with "ah, yes - that was the one that caused the amnesia", but this was, at least, about an actual event.

I started getting targeted calls the day after an accident - my suspicion was that the pickup truck driver sold on my details within minutes of him leaving the accident site. They knew my name, contact details, registrations of both vehicles etc. Luckily I smelled a rat as I was nearly take in by the first caller

The pickup was arranged by the insurer but it was a 3rd party generic garage type truck

My car was stolen last year. Not long afterwards I started being plagued by ambulance chasers about my 'accident' asking if I wanted to put in a claim for personal injury.

It's patently obvious that someone has sold on information about an insurance claim.

The seeling on of info seems to be pretty standard. A while back I claimed on the insurance when the car was hit while parked outside the house. I didn't even know it had happened until a neighbour told me.

Within a couple of days I had calls about personal injury as a result of the accident. When I told one of them I had no injuries they said that muscle or nerve injuries could develop later so I should not rule out claiming now.

When I asked how such injuries might develop when I wasn't in the car when the accident happened there was a pause, and then they asked if I had any psychological injuries!.

Dave

I wouldn't be surprised if there are junior employees at insurance companies who receive a little brown envelope every time they pass on the details of a claimant to the ambulance chasers. 

When my MIL died and we ordered a skip to clear her house, a gang of boozy-breath Romanians turned up in a van so early on the Saturday morning that we suspected they may have been tipped off by somebody at the skip company. They proceeded to pilfer the skip for any metal and spat in disgust when we handed them a bottle of really naff white wine we had found in a cupboard, saying "We want wodka!"

Funnily enough some Irish guys appeared about an hour later and they were extremely naffed off when we told them the Romanians had already taken all the metal.

Had very similar when my car got bumped at work (fully covered by other drivers policy), but the ambulance chasers wouldnt take no for an answer. 

I actually got to the point of considering having my day in court and taking the witness stand to say 'no I wasn't in the car and therefore had no injuries your honour' just to get them off my back. 

As for psychological damage, the harassment of the ambulance chasers was far worse than the trauma of having to tell my partner that his car had a (fairly small) dent. 

"Yes! This phone call has left me severely mentally traumatised! I'm going to sue!"

You're on the accident hotline spammers list - expect 100s of these for the next two years increasingly delivered by charmless robots. Complain to your insurers about GDPR stating that you informed no one but them and someone at your end leaked the details.  Like as not it was the garage or recovery firm that took the bung but since they work for your insurers it is the insurer that is responsible so complain and let them investigate.