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My daughter backed into a parked car which caused minor bumper damage to the car. She found the owner and exchanged info. Next day he puts pressure on me on how I don't want my insurance rates to rise, so bring $1k cash and meet him, then he won't file. However, I find out through insurance that he had already filed the day of the accident. I had decided to not give him money as I really didn't like the pressure and having to deal with him.

He definitely was attempting to commit what I would deem fraud, how should I be addressing this?

Joel
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  • Are you asking whether insurance fraud is legal; or whether it is legal for you to report attempted insurance fraud? I don't see what the question could possibly be. – user6726 Jun 11 '18 at 04:58
  • I didn't know if this would be considered "insurance fraud". Also, since he didn't actually take money from me what action should be taken. If he taken money from me, then obviously be motivated to get it back. – Joel Jun 12 '18 at 00:48

2 Answers2

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If he is still pressuring you for the money even after filing insurance, talk to your city or county prosecutor's office. If you call the police, they may say they're too busy to deal with it and that it's a "he said-she said" situation anyway. But if you go to the local prosecutor, they should be more interested, as this could be a felony, considering the amount of money demanded, and they can instruct the police to help investigate.

BlueDogRanch
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As @BlueDogRanch suggested, contact the prosecutor (if that's possible in your jurisdiction). If (as you describe) he filed with insurance on the day of the accident and thereafter he pressured you toward getting $1K from you, he might be guilty of felony.

Your jurisdiction might have similar statutes as Michigan MCL 750.218(1)(c) and (4)(a) (Intent to defraud so as to obtain from a person money) and MCL 750.159g(w) (attempting to commit a felony violation of [MCL 750.218] concerning false pretenses).

You will notice that MCL 750.218(4)(a) places the felony benchmark at $1,000, thereby triggering the applicability of MCL 750.159g(w).

Iñaki Viggers
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