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An attempt to stage an auto accident in Queens, New York, was thwarted all thanks to a simple dash cam.
The video was posted to TikTok by Ashpia Natasha aka @ashpianatasha4. In the description she explained that she was driving east on the Belt Parkway in the middle lane when an eighth-gen Honda Civic coupe suddenly cut her off. The car slammed on its brakes, likely hoping that Ashpia would rear end them. Her braking was too good for the scammers however, as she comes close but doesn’t make contact. Ashpia mentioned that a second vehicle — a red Kia Sportage — was also following closely behind her.
Suddenly the Civic jerked forward, stopped and then reversed into Ashpia’s car. She can be heard on the phone with her significant other freaking out — as she should be — because she doesn’t understand what’s happening. This is a key part in the incident. If you pay close attention, the rear window of the Civic had what looked to be a blanket covering it; Ashpia mentions that it looked like a tarp. The collision with her car caused it to fall. Right after the collision, the Civic moves forward and the driver puts it into park. Watching closely you can see some commotion in the car that appeared to be the driver of the car—a male wearing a hat—switching places with the female passenger after the hit.
Four people then exited the car, acting as if they’re hurt and in shock at what happened. The male who was originally driving held his head as he looked at the back of the Civic. Another passenger and the woman who was in the front passenger seat took out their phones to record the damage of the cars. You almost miss it, but the fourth passenger slipped out and got into the Kia Sportage that was following Ashpia; the Sportage had moved in front of the Cvic after it stopped.
As the two women recorded, the guy that was “driving” pulled out his phone and walked closer to the front of Ashpia’s car to get a better look at the damage. You can literally see the moment he noticed the dash cam recording before the video ended. A second video posted showed the actions of the Sportage that was following her, likely in an attempt to cut into traffic after the collision so it could move to the front of the scene.
Ashpia says that they were quick to ask for her insurance information, which it seems she gave them as she says that they quickly left after they got the info. She says she called the police when the incident happened but they told her they wouldn’t be coming. Apparently, they don’t respond to accidents anymore when there are no injuries and a willing exchange of insurance information has occurred, which is wild. So far she hasn’t posted an update as this all just happened a couple of days ago but we’ll keep an eye out for any updates.
Staged auto accident fraud is big business in the U.S. The National Insurance Crime Bureau says that because of this kind of fraud, billions in insurance claims are paid out every year. This is all just a friendly reminder that we should all be going out to buy dash cams so we don’t get caught up in a situation like this.