Corruption Bribery Insurance Scams

As a young man in Southern California, I worked as a AAA tow truck driver that also handled police and county sheriff accidents and incidents. The area was mostly rural, seat belt laws were not yet in effect and there was a lot of DUI accidents. By the time the tow truck got there, any damaged vehicles had been gone through by the on scene law enforcement officer(s). If the accident was a DUI or drug related, anything of value was gone. The DUI suspect would be in no position to accuse a cop of theft.

Damaged vehicles were towed from the accident scene to a storage lot where the insurance scams begin. The towing industry is fully beholden to the insurance cartel and they work together to fleece accident victims. By the time insurance investigations and "paperwork" was finished and the damaged vehicle could be removed, the vehicle owner has to pay hundreds of dollars in storage and towing fees. Often, the storage and towing fees, along with the accident damage were more than the vehicle was worth and the vehicle owner signed it over to the tow company owner. The owner would make the cheapest, often questionable, repairs possible and sell the vehicles for huge profits. As many towing companies do, the owner had a auto repair/body shop that could do your repairs right there. Using tried and true insurance estimate scams, using low quality replacement parts and questionable repairs, he made a fortune off accident victims.

One of the most common scams was/is the insurance adjuster writing the estimate for repairs using new, OEM(original equipment) replacement parts. This produces the highest possible repair cost, which would be paid to the repair shop by the insurance company. The vehicle would be repaired with used and aftermarket parts at a greatly reduced cost. The tow/repair shop owner makes a huge profit, pays the insurance adjuster a "kickback" and the vehicle owner finds out years later the shoddy repairs to his vehicle has reduced the value by a considerable percentage.

Another profitable scam would have the insurance adjuster have the vehicle "totaled", undrivable, by exaggerating superficial damage. Cheap repairs would be made, the vehicle sold, kickback, profit. People would see their "totaled" vehicles driving around a month after an accident. Local politicians and their families were driving in style in discount priced used cars.

Which tow truck/tow company that gets called to an accident scene is decided by local or state law enforcement. The towing company I was working for got called to most of the accidents in the area and it didn't take long to figure out why. The owner was paying bribes to the cops. Cop car would pull in, head into the office with the owner and come out with a bag of cash. After working there for awhile, the owner asked me to deliver the bribes. Pull up to a cop car in the AAA tow truck and hand the cop a bag of cash. He must have thought pretty highly of me, but I quit. It was a rude awakening and left a lasting impression.

When my truck was nearly new and parked outside my office in Carlsbad, CA, it was broadsided by a driver "who hit the gas instead of the brakes" and wrecked about a half dozen parked cars. While signing off the insurance estimate for repairs, I pointed out the estimate for repairs exceeded the value of the nearly new vehicle by several hundred dollars and should be totaled. The estimate was revised to one hundred dollars under the truck value and I was forced to go to an "approved" repair shop, where they replaced the nearly new parts on my truck with used and cheap Chinese parts. The paint didn't match and began to rust in less than a year. Water leaked into the cab from a part that was not replaced at all. Even though I knew what was happening, there was nothing I could do.

Of course being hit by a 40 ton semi truck going 50 mph did not leave many repair options the last time around. The insurance companies ripped me off, as they always do, and got away with it again.