I'm in the money! Again!!!

I got a text last night.

It wasn’t just any text. It was giving me very exciting news. It said –

‘The best price has been won for your accident, fill out http://claimsmadeeazy.com and we can put 3928.12 in your bank Now’.

Well of course I was on it like a flash to claim my windfall! I wasn’t really. It is remarkable how such a short message can be so irritating. Sadly or thankfully, depending on your worldview, I haven’t had an accident since 1982 when I fell off my bike on my way to work. So unless the Limitation Act has been repealed, I knew it was a hoax. Presumably the very specific sum is to make it look more credible, just in case I had suffered an accident which I had forgotten about in all the excitement of the Brexit debates.

I did not explore the site in question but it promises a payment into my bank ‘Now’! On the assumption that this would involve giving my bank details the text could be even more sinister than it first appears.

Whatever way you look at it this is a major concern. It promises money for a non existent accident. It promises a fictitious sum of money and asks me to recklessly hand over my personal information.

I can only assume that there are some poor souls who fall for this. Why else would they do it? This is the sort of activity which should bring together both insurers and claimant lawyers. We all want this type of behaviour eliminated.

This is not the first time that I have ranted about misleading contacts from Claims Management Companies. A couple of years ago I received a cold call promising me the earth because I had worked in a noisy factory –

http://thestevecornforthblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/im-in-money-rant.html

Those who represent victims of accidents, industrial disease and medical negligence have been on the receiving end of relentless attacks from the insurance sector and their friends in government. As a result many firms have closed or moved into different areas of work. I have said this many times but the fault does not lie with the massive majority of genuine victims and their lawyers.

There is a tiny percentage of motor claims that are shown to be fraudulent –

http://thestevecornforthblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/why-have-our-government-got-it-in-for.html

That is clearly 0.25% too many. But the real problem here lies with companies who deliberately encourage phoney claims. It would be far more effective to concentrate on the elimination of this behaviour than to focus on the easy targets – the lawyers!