‘This was planned’: Dashcam exposes suspected insurance fraudsters, police launch investigation
Ashpia Natasha was driving down a highway when a car suddenly pulled in front of her and slammed its brakes. What happened next has triggered a police investigation.
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A woman’s dashcam footage showing a suspicious collision on a New York highway has sparked a police investigation over claims of serial insurance fraud.
Ashpia Natasha was driving along the Belt Parkway in Queens on Wednesday morning when a silver Honda Accord merged in front of her and abruptly slammed on his brakes.
Natasha’s quick reaction saved her from crashing into the Honda, but moments later the driver turned on his hazards and reversed at full speed into her front bumper.
“Oh my God, what is he doing,” Ms Natasha screamed in the dashcam clip, which she shared to TikTok.
“I just got into an accident, I don’t know what’s happening,” she told her husband through the car’s speakerphone. “This guy just reversed into me, what the hell is going on.”
Chaotic footage shows suspected fraudsters reverse into car, fake injuries before noticing dashcam on NYC’s Belt Parkway pic.twitter.com/HSLBAT9UMh
— New York Post (@nypost) October 19, 2024
Ms Natasha claimed two backseat passengers used a “tarp” to cover the back window so the male driver could switch seats with a female passenger.
Four people exited the Honda, seemingly acting as if they were injured, while they inspected the damage to the rear bumper.
“I believe the intention was to say I hit their car for insurance fraud purposes,” Natasha claimed.
One female passenger, who exited from the driver’s door, had her phone out, appearing to record both vehicles.
A red Kia that had been following Natasha drove up beside the accident and picked up the suspected male driver before driving away.
Ms Natasha said the remaining three passengers’ demeanours changed instantly after they spotted her dashcam.
“They only came out of the car with their phones ready to record the damage to both cars. They were quick to ask for my insurance and quickly left after the exchange.”
The male passenger spoke with Ms Natasha and explained that his wife was driving and didn’t speak English.
“They were very quick to exchange my licence and my insurance, registration and everything so I didn’t think anything of it,” she said in a follow-up video.
Ms Natasha had asked the remaining passengers if they could wait until her husband showed up, but they said they had to leave “right away to go pick up their baby.”
When a tow truck came to check on Ms Natasha’s car, the other passengers took it as an opportunity to get back into theirs and leave.
“I’m not really sure if they targeted me because of my car or they saw that I was driving alone,” Ms Natasha said.
“They didn’t really follow me for a long time. It seemed like everything happened really fast. It definitely seemed like this was planned out for a while. Definitely not their first time.”
The same silver Honda accord – with a damaged rear and matching licence plate – was later spotted parked in a residential street in Brooklyn.
NYPD investigate claims of insurance fraud
Ms Natasha revealed on Tuesday she had visited police for a fourth time this week in a bid to get an update on the incident.
“They can’t give us a definitive answer right now as far as pressing charges at this point, we’re going to have to contact some lawyers,” she said.
“We’re a bit overwhelmed as we don’t know where to start.”
She said her insurance company was going to cover the $8,000 in damages from the accident “because the video clearly shows I was not at fault.”
The NYPD said an investigation had been launched by the department’s Criminal Enterprise Investigation Unit’s Fraudulent Collision Investigation Squad.
“Detectives have interviewed the complainant and the investigation remains ongoing,” they said in a statement.
Second woman comes forward
Meanwhile, a second woman has since come forward to claim she was victim to an eerily similar collision involving the same silver car with an alleged getaway driver in a red Kia.
Alyssa Attanasio said her dashcam captured her collision, which also took place on the Belt Parkway two months ago.
She realised she had allegedly been targeted by the same group when her insurance inspector showed her her the footage from her car.
“It’s disgusting. You know? Everybody’s looking for like a, like a quick payday. It’s much harder to get up and go to a job, report to a job daily,” she told CBS News.
In 2020, insurance carriers reported 24,238 incidents of suspected motor vehicle insurance fraud, according to the New York State Motor Vehicle Theft and Insurance Fraud Prevention Board.
Over 18,000 of the incidents were labelled no-fault insurance fraud reports, a 23 percent increase from 2019.
Originally published as ‘This was planned’: Dashcam exposes suspected insurance fraudsters, police launch investigation
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