I am inundated with calls after a minor accident a couple of years ago, saying there is compensation waiting to be paid out

What’s the deal with these?

Thanks

Any hospital involvement?

Daughter went to a & e, bit of a sore neck, 1 day off school. No follow up treatment. She was 9 I think

Daughter went to a & e, bit of a sore neck, 1 day off school. No follow up treatment. She was 9 I think

I reckon there’s a couple if million there somewhere…

i get these as do most people someone somewhere in the chain has sold your details that are then farmed round call centres who will sell leads on to bulk litigation solicitors/accident management companies who will ultimately seek to get compensation for you in exchange for the fixed costs paid by the losing side plus a cut of your compensation. My personal view is they are less than ethical ( my mum was hounded for months by one mob who basically told her to invent injuries and that she would be in trouble with the government if she did not make a claim) if you believe you have a claim for your daughter then go and see a local high street solicitor who will give at least as good a service on the same or better terms , claims for children are protected in that limitation does not run till 16 and in that settlements may have to be approved by the court.

day of school plus sore neck will be worth bobins .
IANTSOL (i am not that sort of lawyer)

I don’t think I have a claim, but get 3 or 4 of these calls a week, basically saying the other party’s insurers have but a sum aside blah blah

Apparently that PPI thing you were sold a few years ago by your bank isn’t exactly kosher either! 😯

Partly why insurance premiums are now at an all-time high. Getting our details bought and sold, I mean.

I was told that the best way to reduce the calls is to tell them that you’ve already made a successful claim, the logic being that they’ll update your records. How true that is I’ve no idea.

someone somewhere in the chain has sold your details

It’s not even that in some cases, a percentage are cold calling chancers hoping that you’ll say “ooh, yes I have!” My mum gets them and the only time she’s ever driven was on a driving lesson half a century ago.

I had the same, went on for 3 years, despite trying to block numbers, being on TPS, telling them to F off etc. An old lady smacked into the back of my van with her car, turned out we were both with Directline so passing on the info must have come from there. I complained to Directline, their CEO etc but they were still in complete denial about doing this.

An old lady smacked into the back of my van with her car, turned out we were both with Directline so passing on the info must have come from there. I complained to Directline, their CEO etc but they were still in complete denial about doing this.

A member of staff at Aviva did the same to me and I had daily calls for around a year, funnily enough not long before the story broke that an employee had been caught selling personal details at Aviva. Aviva denied there was any connection, I even lodged a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman.

NHS hospitals have form for ‘passing’ on details too.

Any company that employs a large pool of people, on minimum wage, probably on zero hours contracts, to sit on phones all day, in something resembling a battery farm, will have a problem with some of those staff being offered cash for passing on details and thinking “**** it! Why not?!”

binners – in which case there should be CCTV monitoring them so the dishonest ones get caught.

I’ve just started to get these calls after being knocked off my bike a month ago, only one or two a week so far but I’m bracing myself for when it ramps up. Telling them I’ve chosen a legal firm doesn’t deter them, they just start saying how they’ll get me more money!!

I may have called the one yesterday a parasitic scum 😈

in my mums case i got the details of the other parties insurers and tried to give them all the information about a company who were trying to force my mum to defraud them ,they were utterly disinterested not withstanding that this company must on any logical analysis have been into them for 100s of £1000s per year.

cinnamon_girl – Member

in which case there should be CCTV monitoring them

Hello, I’m calling about your accident in 1984.

There probably is CG. But filming what? i used to freelance for a large American bank that had a big battery farm/call centre. They had all kinds of internal security, but fraud was still a massive problem*. A favourite trick was simply to get someones details up on screen then simply take a photo of the screen with your mobile. How do you realistically stop that? Ban phones? Search everyone going in and out?

They just factored in that they could never really stop it without making working conditions so prison-esque that no-one would work there. It was bad enough as it was! Christ knows how anyone stuck it! It looked like a vision of hell! And on top of that, you’ve got people moaning and complaining at you on the phone all day.

* To give you an idea of how much – they reckon that all the card theft, card cloning, identity theft etc accounted for under 10% of the money they lost through fraud. 90%+ was internal, or via information being passed on by employees to third parties

binners – I do understand what you’re saying but can’t help feeling that they’re not making an effort to ensure working conditions are more tolerable. It’s laziness and shows a disrespect for people, I think that’s morally wrong. As for mobile phones, they shouldn’t be permitted on the ‘shop floor’.

Any customer service work is bloomin’ hard work and thankless so actually it’s a two way thing here – look after employees and they’ll look after customers.

Need to leave my leftie utopia as there’s tea to be sipped drunk. 😀

We get one of these at least once a week – I play the usual game of getting them to hang up on me.

The last couple of times, all it’s taken is “could you spell your company name for me please?”.

It’s laziness and shows a disrespect for people,

You’ve never met Capitalism before, have you?

My son was in a crash a while ago and he phoned me as it was only down the road. I attended and called the breakdown service (one of the big 2 ‘not the yellow one’)and they sent a local body repair firm to pick the car up. Then I was hounded by these calls. So either the big breakdown firm sold my details or the local body repair firm sold them.

i get these as do most people someone somewhere in the chain has sold your details that are then farmed round call centres

I get them and have never had a crash! From what I can work out its just a random guess, with some cleverly worded questions which get you to quickly admit being a potential “target” or not…

You’ve never met Capitalism before, have you?

I clearly belong in a different world!

Daughter went to a & e, bit of a sore neck

that’s very, very nearly a child’s face
I’d be looking for 6 figures

I wonder if it’s this kind of crap that means crashed cars on transporters often have half the number plate covered with tape?

My daughter had an accident at the side of the road and was being called before the recovery truck turned up, only people she’d informed had been the police!

My previous boss was getting them 3-4 times a day after someone hit his lease car. Got fed up, said fine, go ahead, they sent a pre-completed form, he signed it and got a £1900 cheque. Is an absurd immoral industry. Insurance companies keep complaining its ‘our’ (filthy public scum’s) fault but it’s them selling on the details. 🙄

Partly why insurance premiums are now at an all-time high.

Ironically, the insurance companies blame high costs (therefore high premiums) on these ‘no win no fee’ legal firms, but are the ones responsible for selling your details in the event of an accident. Somewhat circular argument on their part.

Just had one on my work mobile (which is the first clue that they’re wardialling).

Her: “Hello, my name’s Natasha and I’m calling from (who the hell knows, they always always mumble the company name), I’ve been informed that you’ve been in a car accident that wasn’t your fault?”

Me: “Sorry, you’ve been misinformed.”

Her: “Well, according to our records, you’ve been involved in a car accident that wasn’t your fault. Were you not aware of this accident?”

Me: “Oh, right. What date was that?”

*pause*

Her: “Ok!” *click*

I think that there must be a gap in the market for providing an extension 666 for cold callers:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/29/it_helpdesk_creates_oh_hold_hell/

That’s superb. I’m talking to our phone system guys tomorrow.

I get these calls despite never having had any sort of accident nor claimed on insurance. I don’t buy the ‘insurance companies sell your details’ shit.

I clearly belong in a different world!

Most decent people do.

I don’t buy the ‘insurance companies sell your details’ shit.

They certainly do. I had it convincingly confirmed by one of the more legitimate cold callers (Adrian Flux were the culprits).

There are chancers also of course. Both happens.

I had one call me.

Me ‘Yes, I have had an accident which wasn’t my fault’
Them ‘Excellent, could you tell me a little more’
Me ‘They just came out and onto the main road from the right without time for me to react – she was in a pretty bad way after the crash, I’d kind of feel guilty trying to claim against her but is was her fault’
Them ‘You really need to think of yourself at time like this sir and don’t need to feel bad. It is important we do the best for you. It could be a lot of money’
Me ‘Are you sure, she didn’t look very wealthy?’
Them ‘Don’t worry, we have an excellent track record and it doesn’t matter who they are’

…..5mins of details about the damage to the car and passengers….

Them ‘So do you have a name and address for the other party?’
Me ‘Yes, it was a B Deer, I think her address was The Moor, Dulsie Bridge, Invernesshire – I don’t have a postcode’
Them ‘And, do you know the first name?’
Me ‘Yes, Bambi. Bambi the Deer on the moor near Dulsie’

Them ‘You time wasting arsehole!’ , click.

Fun while it lasted, and I was never actually was untruthful.

A milkman reversed into my parents’ car when it was parked on their front. They got phone calls about injury claims despite being in bed asleep at the time of the accident.

A favourite trick was simply to get someones details up on screen then simply take a photo of the screen with your mobile. How do you realistically stop that? Ban phones? Search everyone going in and out?

Most of the call centres handling this stuff are far too unethical to really give a toss, even if the rules were brought in – I’m not sure they’d care enough to enforce them.
Places like where I work, which deals with charity raffles, absolutely has to have a ban on mobiles, and all other electronic devices and cameras in the most sensitive areas, and people can be searched, and there are cameras everywhere, there are two in the room I work most of the time, and eight next door.
We did catch a temp helping herself to cash from donations sent in, thanks to the cameras.
But then, we’re handling cash, cheques and credit card details.
We did have an in-house call centre, but recent changes in the rules meant we had to shut it down, losing several jobs in the process, sadly.