I live in a state (New York) with unusually strong automobile liability insurance requirements and unusually high average premiums. Some people here intentionally register (and plate) their car in other states (often very far away, cough Texas, Virginia, South Dakota cough), to get minimalist insurance.
Often you can look up the plates and see consistent camera violations in my jurisdiction going back over a decade, so clearly not recent arrivals (also you’ll be shocked to find out they’re like 95th percentile dangerous drivers)
Is there any way to get them in trouble/stopped from doing this? Whether it be with their insurer, the state of fake registration, or the state of actual residence.
People fraudulently registering their cars
byu/No-Age-559 inInsurance
Posted by No-Age-559
8 Comments
I mean… As soon as they get into an accident and the insurance company realizes where they garage their car is not where the policy states, they will get SIU on their ass and probably get their claim denied for deliberate misrepresentation and insurance fraud.
Same here in California. The highway patrol here has a tip line for this kind of stuff.
I think its just best you let it go. The DFS has a option to report insurance fraud online, but if 90% of the form is blank and the only information you give them is a out of state license plate number that you frequently see, they aren’t going to put any real effort into investigating.
One corollary to this, who (besides the hypothetical future accident victim who can’t collect the way they’re supposed to be able to) is most ripped off here: The out-of-state (actual) insurer or the insurance market/customers in the state of actual residency? Seems like arguably fraud against both but maybe in practice selects the shadiest drivers out of the resident state insurance pool? Like if you’re South Dakota do you really want a selection of the disproportionately least risk-averse NY drivers spicing up your risk pool? Or would there never be any payout in the event of an accident because of the easily provable fraud anyway.
Don’t worry about them.
Insurers can already check the cam data to see that a vehicle (for example) was seen 1,342 times in NYC and 0 in TX.
They’ll handle it appropriately at claim time…in the unlikely event they actually have insurance.
I think insurance agents also need to be vigilant when writing policies. I can recall many quotes where someone gave me a garaging address in upstate NY and has a PO Box in one of the boroughs. Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining
If you think someone’s committing insurance fraud, you can let the New York State Department of Financial Services know, or even reach out directly to the insurance company. If you’ve got stuff like a bunch of camera tickets that seem fishy, those could really help make your case.
Strong liability requirements? 25/50/10 ?