Many of us have had the experience of taking a call from someone asking if we have been in a car accident and offering various forms of assistance including “insurance” and “a payment”. This are part of a scam known as “claims farming”, an illegal activity whereby offshore organisations cold call random numbers in the hope that the person answering the call has indeed have been involved in a car accident in the recent past. The caller will then try to lure you into signing up to their “service”. Your details are then “farmed” to unscrupulous lawyers who will then make a CTP claim for and in doing so charge exorbitant fees while also kicking back a fee to the claims farmer.
Claims farmers have been known to secure telephone numbers by unlawfully accessing official accident investigation reports, but more often it seems they simply call telephone numbers at random on the chance that the person they are calling may have recently been involved in an accident. Either way the practice is an invasion of privacy, and in breach of the strict personal injury advertising laws that apply in Queensland.
When received by our clients these calls can cause confusion as some think the call is coming from our firm, or from the insurer we are making the claim against, or from information we have supplied. Be assured vbr Lawyers has never been, is not, and never will be associated with any form of claims farming. We will never share your information with any person or entity without your specific consent unless it is directly relates to progressing the claim we are pursuing on your behalf.
If you receive an unsolicited call of this kind asking you about a car accident or for your details or details of your accident, do not provide any information – just hang up.
Hopefully with enough information in the public domain this practice can be brought to an end.