Call the policy: the Russian Federation has spread a scheme of deception by car lawyers on the roads

A deception scheme has spread in Russia, which is actively used by unscrupulous car lawyers, T-Insurance told Izvestia. After an accident, emergency commissioners come to the motorist — they learn about the accident through their channels and online maps and other sources. Together with the car lawyer, they convince the person to sign a contract that gives them the right to demand payment from the insurer instead of the client. Supposedly, this eliminates red tape, and the client immediately receives cash. At the same time, scammers greatly underestimate the amount of payment, sometimes several times. As a result, the person no longer has enough for repairs. Izvestia understood how to act after an accident in order not to become a victim of deception.

How Russians are deceived by emergency commissioners after an accident

Unscrupulous car lawyers often began to deceive Russians on the roads. The scheme works as follows: when a motorist gets into an accident, private emergency commissioners quickly come to him. They receive information about the incident from online maps and through their own channels. Together with the car lawyer, the so-called commissioners convince the person to resolve the issue of payment "without unnecessary red tape," T-Insurance said.

In practice, the driver is persuaded to sign an assignment agreement, which gives scammers the right to demand compensation from the insurer instead of the insured client. In return, the person receives cash immediately after completing the transaction. However, there is a serious catch here — often the amount of the payment due is greatly underestimated.

— After meeting with unscrupulous car lawyers and signing a cession agreement, the car owner may lose up to 30% of his money. Of course, not all car lawyers are scammers, but there are also a number of signals that should indicate to the client that he is dealing with an unscrupulous partner. Among them are the offer of instant money, insisting on signing an assignment agreement, as well as intimidation and provocations about long—term lawsuits with insurance companies to extort their money," said Mikhail Spivak, head of the department for combating insurance fraud at T—Insurance.

The scheme with the assignment agreement is one of the most popular among unscrupulous car lawyers, according to the data from the T—Data analytical project. Last year, the number of applications for such contracts increased by more than 7% by 2023. At the same time, car lawyers in Moscow and the Moscow region have most often used the scheme with the assignment agreement over the past 3 years, accounting for 14% of all settlement requests. The Voronezh Region is in second place (9%), while St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region (6%) close the top three regions with such a deception scheme.

Over the past year, this scheme has gained a particularly large turnover among dishonest independent experts and car lawyers, said Alexander Palitsyn, chief specialist of the loss settlement department at AST insurance consultant. The trend was also confirmed by Anton Meltsov, founder of Insurance Broker AMsec24.

This is due to the legal illiteracy of the population and the "hole" in the legal field, Alexander Palitsyn believes. Dishonest car lawyers take advantage of this and profit from it, even without breaking the law.

Other reasons for the increase include the general deterioration of the economic situation and an increase in the number of accidents, Anton Meltsov added.

How to detect fraud when receiving an insurance payment

The described deception scheme has existed for quite a long time, it is especially developed in the regions, said Alexey Tarapovsky, founder of Anderida Financial Group. According to him, the calculation is based on the fact that a person is in a state of stress and shock, and cannot assess the situation carefully.

In addition, the scheme has been put on stream, said Ivan Popov, Director of the Department of Motor Vehicle Damage Settlement at IC MAKS. The commissioners receive information about the accident from 112 operators, either from unscrupulous traffic police officers, or from Telegram channels, where they send information about accidents in the region, experts from the safety department of the insurance company "Consent" explained.

Moreover, police officers themselves sometimes tell Russians that they will have to wait three to four hours and recommend that they sign a contract with the help of emergency commissioners, Ivan Popov continued. At the scene of an accident, they usually tell the client that the insurance companies will definitely deceive them and refuse to pay, and then they offer their services. Moreover, they also issue a notarized power of attorney, which, in addition to receiving compensation, gives them the right to open accounts in the name of the client and transfer money from them, Ivan Popov added. According to him, the number of applications for assignment agreements is growing dynamically.

The vast majority of such contracts are held under CTP, as the most widespread type of insurance, the Rosgosstrakh press service said. In terms of CASCO, the scheme is used much less frequently, as customers know that they are guaranteed full compensation, added Maxim Dmitriev, director of the Ingosstrakh company's loss settlement department.

How to act after an accident and whether it is worth concluding an assignment agreement

Such a "quick" decision at the accident site can lead to big problems for the client, the Rosgosstrakh press service warned. At least with taxes, because you will have to pay personal income tax on all income received by a legal representative.

For example, commissioners extort additional funds from an insurance company by delaying the process (in order to add a fine to the amount of damage), by issuing expensive bills for expertise. And people have to pay 13% of the amounts that the auto lawyers won in court and put in their pockets, explained Igor Ivanov, vice president of RESO-Garantia.

In addition, the amount that the client receives from the commissioner and the latter from the insurance company may differ significantly, Zetta Insurance emphasized. As a result, there won't be enough money to repair the car.

For example, there were confirmed cases when a person was paid only 30-50 thousand rubles, and insurance companies received 400 thousand rubles each through abuse, said Ivan Popov from MAKS. And in some cases, they manage to recover over two million rubles for CTP.

It is better not to sign an assignment agreement, but to contact insurance companies on your own, Absolut Insurance reported. It is possible to understand that the amount is underestimated only with extensive experience, when the driver knows the cost of repairs and spare parts.

If a person signs a contract, they will not be able to terminate it in the future and contact the insurance company on their own — they prescribe such fines for this that the client may owe a multiple of the repair cost, the experts of Consent added.

In addition, in no case should you issue a power of attorney along with the assignment agreement for the right to open bank accounts and manage the money coming to them, Rosgosstrakh warned.

In order not to fall for this deception scheme after an accident, it is worthwhile to communicate about all the circumstances only with law enforcement officers, Alexander Palitsyn from AST reminded. Another option is to apply for a European protocol, for example, through Gosuslugi.