Army of moped scammers targeting mothers and women drivers: 'Crash for cash' crime epidemic that can cost victims £40,000 - even if they've done nothing wrong!

The revving of the engine felt as though 'something was coming for me', says interior designer Helen Harris.

Seconds earlier, she had been waiting to turn right from a side street onto a busy main road at a south London junction when a moped on the other side flashed his lights and signalled her to move forward.

'Often people leave a gap for you to come out, especially if the traffic's congested,' says Helen. No sooner had she 'cautiously' done so, however, than the moped sped off, and a second moped overtook the queue of cars the first had held up and careered into the wheel arch in front of Helen's driver door.

This was the driver who had revved his engine menacingly — yet the moped 'barely made contact' with her car, she says. Nonetheless, the twenty-something driver, face obscured by his helmet, got off his scooter and 'started shaking his hands like his wrists were hurting,' adds Helen. 'There was no damage to his bike. I believe in the good of humanity, but was sceptical this was a genuine accident.'

Helen's instincts were right. For, despite the fact neither vehicle sustained so much as a scratch, a solicitor acting for the moped driver has already claimed £2,667.70 from her insurer.

As the claim is investigated, Helen's no-claims bonus has been put on hold and she is expecting her insurance premium to rise. 'I am furious,' she says. 'I feel hood-winked and stupid.'

Such 'crash-for-cash' scams — in which moped or motorcycle riders deliberately induce or stage accidents to fraudulently claim on the insurance of the motorist they've targeted — are an 'epidemic' in the capital city, according to the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB), a non-profit organisation that helps the industry fight fraud. Birmingham and Manchester are other hotspots.

It's a huge and growing problem. The insurer Allianz recently revealed that claims relating to motorbike crash-for-cash scams had increased by 6,000 per cent between January and December 2023, while the IFB estimates around 30,000 incidents take place every year.

'These dangerous fraudsters are driving head-first into unsuspecting motorists, leaving countless victims terrified and insurers facing millions of pounds in bogus claims,' said IFB's director, Ursula Jallow.

Until recently, crash-for-cash scams typically involved cars braking suddenly, forcing the vehicle behind them to crash into them.

In the past two or three years, however, there has been a 'huge increase' in scams involving 'a sole rider on a motorcycle,' says Graeme Mulvoy, a partner in counter-fraud at Horwich Farrelly, the leading law firm for the insurance sector. 'That's our biggest area of investigation at the moment.'

In addition to targeting drivers at junctions, scammers sometimes hide on mopeds in side roads or parking spaces, before driving into the victim as they head towards them. They may have an accomplice, and some reportedly use a van to help obscure the victim's view before the moped drives into them.

They usually throw their moped to the ground and drop to the floor to act out an injury, before taking photographs of the incident.

Allianz data has found that the majority of scams happen either at lunch-time or during school-run hours. And, says Liz Hunter, director at price comparison website MoneyExpert.com, 'scammers will most likely look out for people who they suspect won't be argumentative or confrontational when caught up in an accident'.

This means, she says, that most victims are likely to be vulnerable, such as young women, women with young children or the elderly.

Helen was driving home alone from a meeting at 6.55pm in Wandsworth when she was targeted. As the moped driver who had flashed her sped off, the second driver hit her stationery car, staying on his bike after he had done so. 'The first thing I said was, "Are you OK?" ' recalls Helen. 'He indicated yes. We were holding up the traffic, so I said we needed to move off the main road.'

Parked on the side street, the man asked Helen if she had insurance and showed her a screenshot on his smartphone of his insurance document. 'I did wonder who carries that around with them,' says Helen.

Hunter warns scammers might 'have pre-written insurance information ready to hand over' and, unlike most people who 'tend to be shocked, upset or angry' after an accident, may either be acting calmly or exaggerating injuries.

'He gave me his phone and made me put my number in it,' says Helen. 'Then he called it to make sure it was me. His English seemed limited. My car looked fine, and so did his bike, but he was gesticulating as if to say there was a problem. It seemed so choreographed.'

It was only when a woman who'd witnessed the incident approached them to say she suspected Helen was the victim of a scam that she realised exactly what was going on.

The scooter rider, speaking on his phone in Portuguese, didn't react to the allegation and rode off a few minutes later.

'The woman who'd witnessed it said I was bound to hear from him.'

The next day Helen reported the incident to the police online — 'I have yet to hear back,' she says — and to Direct Line, her insurer, who 'acknowledged they were getting more reports like mine'.

Three weeks later she received a solicitor's letter, accompanied by a report from an engineering company's 'theft and claims investigation service' attached.

Explaining the moped had sustained 'heavy' impact during the collision, it said it required new headlights, a front tyre and replacement fenders.

The report concluded that the moped was 'beyond economical repair' and would cost £2,667.70 to fix, which was over £500 more than its current value.

The solicitor said a copy of the letter had been sent to Helen's insurance and stressed their client was hiring a replacement vehicle under a credit hire facility, which will presumably also be claimed for.

Further claims for personal injury often follow separately.

'They will usually claim for whiplash, as it is notoriously hard to prove,' says Hunter, who adds 'estimates suggest criminals can make up to £40,000 per scam'.

Enraged, Helen contacted Direct Line's legal department, who told her crash-for-cash scammers 'moved from area to area', while Mulvey reports that Wandsworth is 'one of a number of areas' his law firm is currently investigating.

Stuart Stevens, head of Policy and Commercial Fraud at Direct Line, said the company had 'detected an increase in fraudsters riding mopeds and motorcycles who deliberately cause accidents'.

He added that many of their customers 'are unaware of any contact during these manufactured accidents', and that 'when reporting the incident to their insurer they should make it clear they are aware of this nationwide fraudulent activity'.

Nonetheless, until the case is settled, Helen's no-claims bonus has been put on hold.

'I'm furious,' says Helen, who is 'a lot more cautious' on the roads now. 'I won't allow myself to be persuaded to come out of a junction again.'

For some, these scams prove psychologically devastating. 'I'm a strong person, but it does shake you. I hate driving now. I'm scared,' says Gina Lewis, 52, who has requested that her name be changed. 'At every junction I stop and wait and wonder who's going to jump out at me.'

Gina, a mother-of-two from Clapham in South London, was dropping her teenage daughter's friend at the Tube station one afternoon last November, when she reached a junction to a busy road.

Waiting to turn right, she edged slowly forward just enough for a bus driver coming in the opposite direction to turn left into her narrow side street. As she did so, a man on a scooter overtook the bus and headed straight towards her BMW.

'I knew straight away it was fraud because the driver didn't even hit me. Instead, he stopped a few inches away from my car, stood up so he was straddling the bike and lowered it slowly. Then he got off it and took pictures of the scene,' says Gina.

'It was just bizarre. I parked my car in a parking space and then walked back to him. I said: "What are you doing? I'm going to call the police."

'He kept saying that he couldn't speak English. All he said was, "Give me your name and phone number." I said, "I'm not giving you my personal details because this is fraudulent." '

With her daughter and her daughter's friend 'dumbfounded' in the back seat, Gina says the man, who refused to take his helmet off, spent the next five minutes typing Portuguese words into Google translate in an apparent attempt to communicate.

'He eventually said: "My girlfriend is in hospital. I have to go to her now." Then he got on his bike and rode off,' says Gina, who adds that there were no CCTV cameras on the road to capture the incident and no witnesses, 'because nothing happened until after the event'. And because there had been no physical contact between the two vehicles, she didn't report it to the police.

Yet, two weeks later, she received a letter from a solicitor with an engineer's report attached at her South London address, retrieved, she believes, from her number plate. The motorbike was written off, the report stated. The driver was claiming £4,000 for the bike, and as yet unspecified sums for the hire of a replacement vehicle and personal injuries.

'I was so angry and upset,' says Gina. Her insurer, Admiral, also received a copy of the letter. 'They said they had to act like it wasn't a fraud,' she adds.

Gina spent 90 minutes giving a detailed statement over Zoom to a member of staff at Admiral, and the company sent someone to her home to inspect the vehicle for signs of damage. They verified that there was none. Admiral is still waiting for medical evidence of the rider's injuries.

When Gina came to renew her insurance, she found her initial quote had doubled and she had lost her no-claims bonus. 'Driving was my passion,' she says. 'I was a confident driver. Now I worry every time I get into my car.'

Hunter warns against confronting a moped driver at the scene 'as you may put yourself at risk'.

But do ask for their full name, address, phone number and vehicle registration, 'and, if possible, write down a description of the driver,' she adds. 'If they are involved in a scam, they'll most likely give you false details, so a description and the vehicles' registration number can really help if any of the details are incorrect.'

S he also suggests drivers invest in a dash cam — a camera attached to the passenger side of your rear-view mirror that records the road as you drive and can ascertain who is at fault in an accident.

If you suspect a crash has been induced, take 'photos and videos of your vehicle, the other vehicle and the "accident" scene to document the location and any damage'.

Joanna Thompson, 43, feels 'angry and helpless' after she was targeted in May.

The PR executive and mother of two children, aged ten and eight, was driving from her son's sports day to her South-West London home at around midday when, turning right at a junction on a quiet side road, she says 'a van was obscuring my view, so I slowly pulled out and stopped as I saw a moped coming up the hill'.

Rather than slowing down, the moped accelerated in a 20mph zone and went into the right-hand corner of her Discovery Sport.

'He had space to go past the front of my car,' says Joanna. 'I asked him why he was going so fast and didn't stop. He said I

turned into him. I said I hadn't.' The driver had fallen to the ground and, Joanna, who has asked for her name to be changed for fear of reprisals, says: 'His bike caught between my wheel and bumper — on reflection, I think probably harder than he'd actually intended.

'There were some scuffs on my bumper. The only thing that came off his bike — which was so battered it was held together with tape — was a bit of plastic.'

The rider, who wouldn't take his helmet off, instantly got to his feet and started taking pictures of Joanna's car. The moped driver showed her a screenshot of his insurance policy on his phone, under a Portuguese name, which had been taken out only two days earlier.

Suspicious, Joanna says: 'I thought he was trying to get a new bike because his was so old. I told him that there was no damage to his moped. He said there was 'lots'.'

Joanna decided it wasn't worth making a claim on her insurance. But it was only when she spoke to another mum that afternoon that she realised she'd fallen prey to a wider scam — and there was a WhatsApp group with more than 100 local people all with very similar stories. Shockingly, some had even been targeted twice.

She believes a video circulating on the group of a 'crash' the day after her own, on a street next to the one where she was hit, was carried out by the same man.

Two days later, she received a text from an 'accident management company' that advertises itself as helping motorbike riders who have been in accidents claim damages, and which many other victims she knows were also contacted by.

'It said: 'You've been in a road accident with our client. We want to hear your side of the story',' says Joanna, who tried to call the moped driver's phone number, only to discover it was no longer in service. 'I suspect it was a burner phone. I was annoyed, not upset.'

Within days her insurers received a letter from the moped rider's solicitor, along with a report from a garage. The driver is claiming around £800 for scratches to the side of his motorbike and another £300 a day for a hire bike — plus, an as yet unknown sum for personal injury.

She has reported the incident to the police online, but has heard nothing back, and holds out little hope the perpetrators will be caught.

'Police have got bigger crimes to deal with', she believes. But with crash-for-cash scams costing insurers £350 million a year — which is passed on to drivers in the form of increased premiums — it's about time it was taken seriously.