My (not any longer, but I had a policy with them at the time) car insurance company have asked me for details of an incident that allegedly happened 18months ago. I smell a scam. Other than knowing I wasn’t involved in an incident I’ve probably got no way of proving I wasn’t in an incident (proving a negative and all that)
I’ve asked for more details, time, location etc no response yet.
Someone did nudge my car in a car park that year, pretty sure not the date in question tho, no cctv, no sign of offender so didn’t report it, wonder if they’ve now decided to manufacture a claim from it.

Any ideas of what I do now except say “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about”
Presumably next time I renew insurance this will raise the price, grrrrr!

Burden of proof is on the claimant, not you… if it was during the day, say you were at work. If in the evening/at the weekend, say you were at home. Make them demonstrate otherwise.

And don’t accept that it was your ex-insurer on the phone – Google their number and call them back asking if they’ve just been on the phone to you…

Pretty sure its my insurer, emailed me 3 times within 15mins, text me and I think they called twice – they only 1 belled me the cheeky sods. Have responded to the email which was a legit email address, will make sure I call a legit number when I speak to them aswell.
Thing is we were involved in an incident over 2 years ago and they handled it appallingly – there are threads about it – one of the reasons I left. Wouldn’t be surprised if they rolled over and paid again. Can’t be doing with the hassle at the moment

Have responded to the email which was a legit email address

There’s no way to tell that, email addresses are the easiest things to spoof.

Just say “there was no incident”, and keep repeating that line

<Edit> and ime burden of threatening insurer with court is on the claimant and his personal injury solicitor, burden of proof the claimant is a lying shitweasel is firmly on me.

If the claimant, whoever he/she is, believes you are liable for some damage or injuries, shouldn’t they be threatening you about it? If you’ve not given your details to someone, how would they even know who your insurer at that point is?

As above, just keep it simple. ‘There was no incident’.

I really don’t see how this could possibly go any further unless there is some actual proof, otherwise chancers would be at it left right and centre – just note a registration plate, make and model of a car in a location then a few months later ring up their insurance company and accuse the other party of crashing into them.

Ask them for proof of the incident and remind them that pursuing a claim without evidence is harassment and you will be treating it as such.

I’d be tempted to demand that they only communicate with you in writing and terminate any phone calls after saying so. All to easy to slip and say something on the spur of the moment that may be misconstrued in order to incriminate you. “I don’t remember” could easily be interpreted as “I don’t remember whether I was involved in an accident or not, so may have been.”

A few years ago my insurance company rang to say I’d been involved in an accident the day before. Quick discussion and I emailed a couple of photo’s of my car to show no damage.

My reg was *279***. Turns out 276, 277 and 278 were also blue 5 series BMW’s… And it was one of them.

As for 18 months,

IIRC statute limitation for a claim is six years so theoretically they can still claim; however, they are obliged to make a claim without unnecessary delay unless there are exceptional / mitigating circumstances. Also, many insurance companies set a limit on how long after the even you can still make a claim. It’d be interesting to know when the claim was presented (has the company sat on it for a year or is it a late claim?) but TBH I wouldn’t get into any of that at this juncture, just deny everything until they provide some sort of evidence.

Had a reply, alleged incident happened 270miles away from us in a place we’ve never visited, so hopefully just some big mix up and just a matter of setting them straight

in a place we’ve never visited

Got proof? 😉

This sort of thing wouldn’t happen if you just let your friends in the government surveil you 24/7 by drone! It’s not like you’ve got something to hide right?

so hopefully obviously just some big mix u

Do you have anything in your diary saying where you were on that day to further prove your innocence?

Got proof?

oh, erm, bugger!

Do you have anything in your diary saying where you were on that day to further prove your innocence?

[i]*scribble scribble scribble*[/i]
Yes, yes I do 🙂

How would any claim get to the insurer before you knew about it? The normal flow of events would be for you to be informed by the claimant of the claim and then you notify your insurers to deal with it accordingly.

I do not see how the first you would know about it would be your insurance notifying you. I would not respond unless I got a snail mail, and then I would contact the insurance company at a known proper contact point to query WTF.

Also 3 emails in 15 mins sounds a bit dodgy and desperate, not normal behaviour IMO.

Our whole office get these phone calls, seemingly on rotation.

Our stock response is, “yes, I hit a deer”.

Since deer don’t have insurance they usual give up at that point 😉

I agree it does sound a bit dodgy, but if it is a scam, to what end? What details could they harvest from me that would make them money?

“they” have my mobile no, car reg, email and insurance policy number, so either they’ve hacked my email account or some part of my insurers so at that point shirley asking me questions is a bit redundant. They’ve asked me to call the legit claims number. They also asked for driver/passenger details at time of incident in email so they may get some info and put in a claim there….dunno tho.

<edit> I’ve had generic calls like that teacake, this was targeted, very specific.

How would any claim get to the insurer before you knew about it? The normal flow of events would be for you to be informed by the claimant of the claim and then you notify your insurers to deal with it accordingly.

the claimant’s insurers would have got OP’s insurers (at the time of the alleged incident) details from MID and written to them. pretty standard now.

spoke to insurers, it’s a proper claim, a company are claiming against damage to some street furniture*, citing my reg but listed as some company car, no make or model cited. And as I said a loooong way away from us.

So either a typo or some con/screwup with duplicated plates. Hope they resolve it quickly, hate stuff like this hanging over my head.

*that’s me being deliberately vague, not the insurers

probably got reg wrong from some grainy CCTV footage or something, it happens sometimes.

Which insurance company?
Just so we know which one to avoid. Pretty dodgy method of contacting policy holder.

Scam or chancer.

Which insurance company?

The company has always liked to do stuff online/via email where possible, I’m happy with that, hate being on hold at call centres. Current insurers are similar. Getting emailed about an event I knew nothing about is what started alarm bells ringing, but as I said it all seems above board – apart from the incorrect reg plate/discrepancy of course.

So it’s bollards then?

I see what you did there.

Was the incident on a work day ? Could be very easy to prove that you were in the office that day.

slight faff of getting an ex-employer to confirm it but yes cranberry, hopefully can resort to this if necessary.

nicely done martin

I still don’t see why you feel obliged to prove anything. They’ve got a reg plate from 18 months ago and nothing else, tell them it wasn’t you and to stop contacting you without evidence of an incident. It’s harassment.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/taking-action-about-discrimination/taking-action-about-harassment/

IME if you don’t give your insurers a caste iron rebuttal against the claims they’ll roll over and payout. (coz it’s cheaper to payout than go to court) I’m hoping this won’t get that far, fingers crossed someone on the claimants side will go “whoops typo, my bad, we need to speak to mr X’s insurers”.

actually IME even if you do have proof, the insurers solicitor will still screw up and end up recommending they payout. (cos it’s a pita for them to actually contest a case in court)

I have a similar claim against me atm from Nov 2015 and have a solicitor defending me on behalf of the insurer.

I have proof that I drove to my office that day, (tracker in car) and have email logs all day proving I was working in that office.
They also asked me if required can people at work sign a statement saying I was there.
Thankfully I also have a gps tracker in the vehicle in question and that proves it was in a secure compound on the day in question.

Have you got an Android phone? You might have location history turned on and if so you can view this in your Google account.

Possibly iPhone does similar, don’t know.

I still don’t see why you feel obliged to prove anything. They’ve got a reg plate from 18 months ago and nothing else, tell them it wasn’t you and to stop contacting you without evidence of an incident. It’s harassment.

From similar scenarios in the past what Cougar said. Issue a denial in writing and state clearly that any further correspondence, phone calls and emails will be charged out at your normal hourly rate. IE they’ll be getting an invoice for any further time that you spend refuting what is a spurious claim. Do they seriously expect you to engage in dialogue/time-wasting at your own expense ?

Debit card payments? Fairly reliable proof of location.