Handling a fraudulent insurance claim against Mach E

[rhfritz]

The police report is key. I suppose it's easy to write down a random plate number, but they know it's a Mach-e? I wonder if they're working with someone local to you with a dash-cam. Otherwise, without the VIN, they'd have to guess the correct car color.

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[onepunch]

your charging history can be independently verified by Ford, so thats probably enough evidence for your insurance company to deny the false claim.

Not that insurance companies aren't already pretty adept at denying claims in the first place lol


Suing the person making the claim though is a boat to nowhere. You would NEVER get a firm to take a case like that on contingency, because its a loser. Also you have no idea if the other party even has any tangible assets in the unlikely event that you actually won any damages

 

[sfosanjay]

your charging history can be independently verified by Ford, so thats probably enough evidence for your insurance company to deny the false claim.

Not that insurance companies aren't already pretty adept at denying claims in the first place lol


Suing the person making the claim though is a boat to nowhere. You would NEVER get a firm to take a case like that on contingency, because its a loser. Also you have no idea if the other party even has any tangible assets in the unlikely event that you actually won any damages

Absolutely agree. I don't care what the police report says or how they got my insurance information. I have my charging history to show that the car was not at the place of incident at that time.

 

[Jean MK]

This sounds like some kind of scam., please let us know how t his work out for you. I guess we all need to be aware of these new scams.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I don’t think it’s something necessarily nefarious. The witness(es) probably got the offending car’s plate number wrong. The officer taking the report may have written/typed the plate number wrong, but that’s doubtful. Witness error is super-common; it’s the simplest explanation. ??

 

[4sallypat]

I don’t think it’s something necessarily nefarious. The witness(es) probably got the offending car’s plate number wrong. The officer taking the report may have written/typed the plate number wrong, but that’s doubtful. Witness error is super-common; it’s the simplest explanation. ??

I'd love to see the police report's VIN # - that's more definitive....

 

[Garyswar]

This is a unique situation so I thought I will get some advice from here.

Someone in South Cal reported that our Mach E hit their car - that the driver of Mach E fell asleep and hit their unoccupied car. They even filed a police report (which our insurance is in the process of getting a copy of). The fact is we live in Nor cal (Bay Area) and this vehicle has never been out of Bay Area. In fact on the day of the alleged incident our app shows that Mach E was getting charged at our home in the Bay Area. I have sent the video of me walking through the Mach E app and showing all the right screens which shows that at the time of incident Mach E was getting charged at our home in the Bay Area to our insurance adjuster. The adjuster is yet to get back to me. And we are yet to see the police report.

Is there anything else I should be doing at this point? Is there any way apart from the charging history to show that the vehicle was located in Bay Area at that time? Are there any screens in FordPass app that shows that? Has anyone encountered anything similar (a fraudulent insurance claim like this) before? How did that go?

My scam radar is going off big time on this.

a. How do you know this is legit? Who reached out to you and how? USPS, Phone, email, etc?

b. Which police department was it reported to?

basically, if someone called you or emailed you, I would call them back at their official phone number. Call the police department at their official number. Ask them for the case number. Find out how a legitimate case number is formatted. When you receive the police report compare the format of the case number. Compare phone numbers etc. but only call the official phone number - and ask them to verify the content of the case number.

Official number is NOT the number they tell you on the phone or print in a email, or print in a document, pdf, etc. Look for official phone numbers on their official webpage. Tell them you are hanging up and calling them back at their official phone company or police dept official number.

just be sure you are dealing with the real insurance company and Police Department and not a fraud call center in India (or other corrupt countries and my favorite US fraud location is Florida ?)

If they ask you for money or all kinds of personal data including address, drivers license, Social Security, insurance policy number, bank account numbers or anything else that’s weird, don’t give them anything unless your scam radar is satisfied.

and don’t give them access to your computer so they can help you get the information you need or whatever excuse they might give for why they would need to access.

It’s a f*ing ramble but man this just doesn’t seem legit.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I'd love to see the police report's VIN # - that's more definitive....

I question how a witness is going to get a VIN unless they’re draped across the hood of the offending vehicle. ?‍?

 

[AngryMan]

Is there anything else I should be doing at this point? Is there any way apart from the charging history to show that the vehicle was located in Bay Area at that time? Are there any screens in FordPass app that shows that? Has anyone encountered anything similar (a fraudulent insurance claim like this) before? How did that go?

Unfortunately it sounds like you should be talking to someone who knows the law . You have been accused of a crime . Hit and run . This situation is a legal one for you . The statute of limitations is 6 years . You need to make sure there aren't any warrants out for you going forward because of this .
Do any of your neighbors have doorbell cams that face where your car was ? Cell phone triangulations and cell tower pings would/could show that you ( or at least your phone ) was near your home . If you have a smart charger that too would be key to showing the location of your charging and the time and date . Charging logs show the location of the chargers we use so that's evidence also but id download or screenshoot those and print them out just incase an OTA changes or eliminates that from the app.
Good luck and keep us informed

 

[Sikkun]

I don’t think it’s something necessarily nefarious. The witness(es) probably got the offending car’s plate number wrong. The officer taking the report may have written/typed the plate number wrong, but that’s doubtful. Witness error is super-common; it’s the simplest explanation. ??

Sir this is the internet. They should already have sued half the state before finding out if in officer wrote down a D instead of an E on a police report.

 

[67 Stang Convertible]

I'm no attorney but I'm sure there are plenty of them here. If no attorney would take the case; what's the harm in Small Claims Court? Just sue up to the limit of the small claims court and represent yourself. Once you have the police report you have their info. If nothing else their scam, name and information gets recorded. Just a thought from a non-legal entity.

 

[AngryMan]

I gotta say this is why you never show your plate numbers on social media .
In my head ( but it's an educated guess ) I think once the cops fed the plate number into the computer system it filled in the blanks as far as VIN, color etc. Kinda like typing in your street address and the state and zip are populated off of that . Im not sure if that's how the system works but id be shocked if it didn't work like that

 

[sfosanjay]

My scam radar is going off big time on this.

a. How do you know this is legit? Who reached out to you and how? USPS, Phone, email, etc?

b. Which police department was it reported to?

basically, if someone called you or emailed you, I would call them back at their official phone number. Call the police department at their official number. Ask them for the case number. Find out how a legitimate case number is formatted. When you receive the police report compare the format of the case number. Compare phone numbers etc. but only call the official phone number - and ask them to verify the content of the case number.

Official number is NOT the number they tell you on the phone or print in a email, or print in a document, pdf, etc. Look for official phone numbers on their official webpage. Tell them you are hanging up and calling them back at their official phone company or police dept official number.

just be sure you are dealing with the real insurance company and Police Department and not a fraud call center in India (or other corrupt countries and my favorite US fraud location is Florida ?)

If they ask you for money or all kinds of personal data including address, drivers license, Social Security, insurance policy number, bank account numbers or anything else that’s weird, don’t give them anything unless your scam radar is satisfied.

and don’t give them access to your computer so they can help you get the information you need or whatever excuse they might give for why they would need to access.

It’s a f*ing ramble but man this just doesn’t seem legit.

My insurance adjuster contacted me that there is a claim against my car which is insured by them. I independently logged into my insurance account and verified that there indeed is a claim open against one of my car. The adjuster is now trying to get the police report. Pretty much that's where it is right now.

 

[sfosanjay]

Unfortunately it sounds like you should be talking to someone who knows the law . You have been accused of a crime . Hit and run . This situation is a legal one for you . The statute of limitations is 6 years . You need to make sure there aren't any warrants out for you going forward because of this .
Do any of your neighbors have doorbell cams that face where your car was ? Cell phone triangulations and cell tower pings would/could show that you ( or at least your phone ) was near your home . If you have a smart charger that too would be key to showing the location of your charging and the time and date . Charging logs show the location of the chargers we use so that's evidence also but id download or screenshoot those and print them out just incase an OTA changes or eliminates that from the app.
Good luck and keep us informed

So far none of us (me and my family member) have been named in the claim. It's against the car. In any case, that night we all were attending a public event and there are enough picture/video and witnesses to prove that. We also have ring camera which shows our car going in the garage that night, and coming out of garage next morning. That coupled with charging history on the ford app is I think enough evidence to prove that it's a fraudulent claim. Anyway, I will keep you all posted how this goes.

 

[MCred]

Charging your car consumes excess electricity over normal household use. If you have a time of use meter, it is remotely possible that the power co can show usage that night vs other nights.Also I know google maps tracks my location and I can see my travels on a map for any given day

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