Scam: You hit my car!!

An Eyes for Lies reader wrote to me the other day to share a scam she experienced.  I wanted to share what she wrote so you can learn from her experience--in case you get caught in the same situation!

Something bad happened to me the other day. I want to thank you for educating me with your blog and FB. Because of you, I was able to protect myself...   A very nice family, man, wife and 12 year old child, tried to convince me that I had wrecked into them. Preying on my compassion it nearly worked. As the police were on their way, I shut off my emotion and started to watch and listen. The wife's eyes, the husbands questions and the "injured" childs behavior told me I was being set up. I was on an empty street, with 3 people who outweighed me by 150lbs (even the 12 year old) and I had a whole bunch of cash. Imagine their surprise when I said to the arriving officers, I was not in any accident with these people, they are scam artists and have set me up.... 2 hrs later...the man was arrested and I was finally sent home, the police never even asked me my name.We were on a 4 lane road. 2 lanes each direction. We were both traveling the same direction and we were going over railroad tracks (15 mph?). Both cars had a 4 windows rolled down. When we came over the tracks his rear drivers side window was even with my passenger front window...making us "face to face". He was honking and hollering "HEY---" and thats what got my attention. I said "what?" He said "something like " DAMN... I heard his wife saying Pull Over. (not necessarily to me) and I saw him pull over-- so I pulled in front of him..kinda far up, because I only pulled over after seeing him pull over in my rear view.

I jumped out of my car and walked to his window, and thats when I saw his door..it was mashed. I asked him if he was ok? he said yes, then i looked in the back window at the kid and asked her if she was ok...(I was scared of the 250lb wife, I can't lie) thats when dad looked at his wife and said, "you are ok right"...looked at his daughter and told her she was okay too. I told him I had insurance and was just glad we were going so slow and no one was hurt. Thats when he got out of the car with his DL and ins and came to the front of the car and leaned on his hood. I also told him I didnt have a phone, did he just want to trade information? He said Nope, we gotta call the police and his wife called 911. I went to get my purse with my insurance card and DL and when I came back to his car he was looking at his damage apologizing to his wife "all I heard was a very sarcastic " well, sor-ry" and was leaning in through the door to get his cigarettes (this is the second time he has opened and closed the damaged door).

After a few minutes of banter between the three adults, I returned to my car to get my smokes and this time I went to my passenger side to look at my damage... saw none. Grabbed my cigarettes and stood on the sidewalk, just staring at my pristine bumper. When I walked back to the mans car, his wife said to me "there isn't any damage is there?" and it wasn't high pitched at the end of the question...it was a statement. I answered honestly and said "nope" thats some "crazy shit".."oh well, I guess its because we were going so slow...." because I really wanted help as these ppl already seen my insurance card...and I was really concerned this was going to get bigger than a simple "new car door scam". 

If you think it is impossible that you could fall victim to this scenario--think again.  When we get emotional and scared, which anyone would if they thought that perhaps they side-swiped a car, you question your own judgement, and most good people would want to do the right thing. It would be hard to say, "Wait a minute here!"  Scammers pray on people's emotions--it's their best tool, and this woman was brilliant to remove her emotions. It's what likely saved her!  Then she applied her deception detection skills and heard a big tell-tale clue when the woman asked a question about the damage, yet said it as a statement. Bravo!

Had this woman not realized what was going on, and filed a police report--she would have been had. Once the police report would have been filed, it would have been really hard for her to get things turn around, if she realized what was going on after the fact--especially if this family didn't have a history.

On a scam like this, you need to be quick to prevent getting caught up in a much bigger situation!  Time is of the essence.  Once people leave the scene, its hard to argue that things happened differently than they did.

I'm so happy to hear that the tips I teach on how to spot deception have helped people.  I've gotten a lot of emails lately sharing how I've helped you, my readers, and it really makes my day!

Read more:  5 Common Auto Insurance Scams (And How to Avoid Them!)