Being involved in an accident is stressful enough without the added risk of being misled by unscrupulous tow truck operators.
A growing concern on South African roads is the increasing incidents where motorists, often in shock after an accident, are misled into handing over their vehicles under false pretences to the attending tow truck service, purportedly operating on the instruction of a valid insurer.
In the most recent case in Gauteng, a concerned mother alerted community members of the scam following an accident involving three cars her daughter had been involved in.
She says within minutes, tow truck operators appeared on the scene, asking if her daughter had insurance. One operator handed the daughter a phone, claiming her insurer was on the line.
The person on the call warned her daughter that her airbag was at risk of inflating unexpectedly if she attempted to move the car. The person also allegedly said her insurance would not pay out if she continued to drive the car in this state.
Believing she was speaking to her ‘actual insurance provider’, the daughter was persuaded to have her vehicle towed for an ‘assessment’. Later, she discovered that the car had not been taken to an accredited repair shop but was at a tow truck company’s premises.
