I was almost the victim of an Illegal Immigrant (The guy driving behind me was not so lucky)

Hey ATS, Over the past few months there were a few topics on the forums about how illegal immigrants use scams to get get settlement money and other benefits.

One of those scams was to deliberately get into car crashes when they have no insurance and most of the time no drivers license.

Well last night I was witness to one of these scams and I was almost a victim of the scam but I was lucky that I was not chosen by the illegal immigrant.

I was driving down a road near my home that is 4 lanes, 2 lanes going each way with a median between each side of the road. I was traveling down the road and there were various businesses on the right side of the road where there were large parking lots that led out to the road I was on.

There was nobody on the road except myself and another driver that was about 300 yards behind me and we were traveling roughly 45 miles per hour. I noticed that there was a car sitting at the entrance to one of the lots facing towards the road and I wondered why it was just sitting there when there was no traffic to stop the person from turning onto the road. I figured it was a police officer waiting for speeders but as I got closer I realized it was an old beat up car that had about 6 different colored panels and was rusted out.

When I got about 30 yards from the car it suddenly started to pull out into the right lane (I was in the left lane) but it did not start to turn it was going straight even thought there was a median blocking it from doing so. As it neared my car the person slammed on their brakes and backed up returning to its previous position narrowly missing my car.

I believe that the illegal immigrant saw that I was not driving a very nice car (my car is about 12 years old) so I was not a suitable target.

I was thinking to myself what the hell is this guy doing and as I looked back in my rear view mirror I see the car that was driving a few hundred yards behind me approach the car that had almost hit me.

As the car got close you can guess what happened... The old junker car pulled right out in front of the car that was behind me smashing into the side of the person car.

I knew something was not right so I called the police and reported the crash and turned around at the nearest light to return to the scene of the accident so I could act as a witness to the crash so that the person who was purposely hit would not get screwed over.

I pulled up to the scene and got out of my car to see 2 men standing outside the cars one was a white male who was driving the car behind me and the other was a young Mexican man.

The man who was hit was driving a Mercedes and this is why I think that I was not chosen because this person seemed to be looking to crash into someone with money not someone driving an old used car.

The Mexican guy spoke no English and was talking really fast in an angry tone and me and the other man just stood there and talked while we waited for the police. The man told me that the driver just slammed into him without even trying to avoid him.

A few minutes later the police arrived and tried to get a grasp on what happened. Luckily he spoke Spanish and he asked for both drivers license and insurance information.

Needless to say the Mexican man could not produce either one and it was determined that he did not have insurance nor did he have a valid drivers license.
The police officer said that he could not determine at the moment if the man was an illegal alien but it was a strong possibility and that this had been happening a lot recently in the area.

He also said that if the man was an illegal that there was really nothing they could do about it and the man would most likely be released and that the driver who got hit would have to handle the financial burden of the situation.

I was skeptical of these scams when I first read about them. After seeing such a blatant attempt to cause an accident when the driver knew full well that he did not have insurance and did not even have a drivers license for that matter made me a believer that this stuff happens more than we would like to think.

Well that's my story, I am going to be very weary from now on but a situation like this seems almost unavoidable if the person doing the scam is determined to succeed.

[edit on 27-6-2010 by TV_Nation]

As if folks do not already have enough problems in life, now we have to worry about illegal immigrants going from scamming our SYSTEM, to now SCREWING US!!

These illegals need to go. They are nothing but PROBLEMS!!!!

Thank you for sharing this with ATS, this is very interesting. Just another reason to tighten our borders. Although i'v never heard of this tactic before, may I ask which state you live in?

I'm just wondering if you stayed around and actually verified this man's legal status in the United States..

...pretty sure I read and hear about scams each and every day, irregardless of what country they occur in...

...millions and millions of dollars being embezzelled, businesses operating as fronts, investors losing their lifes savings, people being taken for a ride by unscrupulous individuals...

...very few of them seem to be 'illegals' in that country...


Crime is crime is crime.

How does this make any sense? If the illegal immigrant does this, the cops come, the immigrant could (should) be deported? What what they have to gain?

reply to post by TV_Nation


First, tell me how you knew he was mexican.

Second, tell me how he was going to profit off this if he was the one who ran into the mercedes. In other words, what was the scam?

Originally posted by muse7
I'm just wondering if you stayed around and actually verified this man's legal status in the United States..

I did not verify this 100% but it was pretty obvious to me considering the situation.

When you get into an accident without insurance you are in violation of laws, so the police and courts will be after you, to take away your license, fine you bunch of money, make very bad marks on your record, so that when you do try to get insurance it will cost you a heck of a lot more than had you never been caught being criminal driver.

The other people insurance will try to get from you money to pay for damages to their car, medical expenses for the other people in the car, inconvenience to them due to maybe not being able to work for some days (loss of income), cost of alternative transportation while their car being fixed, maybe more.

If you can't or won't pay, then any property you have, such as your car, home, bank accounts, etc. will be seized to pay this debt & if it is not enough, then garnishment will be issued against your paycheck ... that means that you get to keep a tiny amount of your pay, and most of it goes in installments to pay off this debt.

The cost to a person getting in an accident without insurance is astronomical compared to the cost to a person of getting insurance.

Guess what group of people can get away with such things with a slap on the wrist.... Illegal Immigrants.

If this were an American citizen you would have to be out of your mind to pull of such a stunt unless you are willing to give up your assets to fix the persons car and pay for any injuries they may have obtained.

I don't quite get this one either. You and the driver behind you were both on the right of way, he pulled out of a parking lot, trying to make money?

How could he, if he hit somebody else on a right of way?

Perhaps he was just looking for a free ride back to Mexico?

Thanks for the story/warning!

On a personal note, a relative of mine works for the Feds in D.C. He was driving a Fed car and was stopped at a a red light. The light turned green, he went forward, and was broad-sided by a taxi-cab driver (who was a legal immigrant, I believe). But here's the interesting bit...all sorts of people stopped to assist. It was clear that the taxi-cab ran the red light, the cops came, wrote it up, etc. but my relative didn't get any names/numbers from witnesses.

Well a week or two later the taxi-cab driver claims that my relative ran the red light and demands $$$ from the Feds. Apparently the Feds see this all the time because the Fed Dept that the relative works for was told not to respond to anything that the taxi-cab driver & his lawyer send to him but instead just report it to his department lawyers.

About two months later my spouse and I witnessed a teenager running a red-light and whacking a woman on the passenger side. I wrote down my name & work number and gave it to the woman (who was quite shaken up but otherwise seemed OK). About a week later i recieved a call from a Geico Insurance Rep asking if I witnessed the accident. Here's what was a bit interesting - both the teenager and the woman were Geico customers but without a witness, and despite the police report, it would have been a "he said, she said" situation. I couldn't believe it...

Moral of the story, if you witness an accident, provide your name and work number...it can make a big diference.

Thanks again!

Originally posted by Blanca Rose
I don't quite get this one either. You and the driver behind you were both on the right of way, he pulled out of a parking lot, trying to make money?

How could he, if he hit somebody else on a right of way?

Perhaps he was just looking for a free ride back to Mexico?

Drugs/medication or new car parts if the police believe their story over the victims' among other things

[edit on 27-6-2010 by alaskan]

It's really sad that this section of ATS has turned into an almost stormfront kind of board. Full of xenophobic threads, that spew nothing but retarded assumptions like the OP here.

Just because a person that speaks Spanish fails to produce a drivers license and insurance they are instantly labeled an "illegal alien", I don't know either whether or not the man being discussed in the OP is here legally or illegally but let's not jump to conclusions?

reply to post by TV_Nation


Hi OP,

We here in Ireland had a similar scam pushed on us, in particular by Nigerian "asylum seekers", in particular they would focus on women driving alone. What they would do is drive along slightly below the speed limit, let the car behind catch up with them then jam on the brakes, car behind would hit them.

In virtually every case, there would be about 4 or 5 immigrants in the car, and all would suddenly have whiplash, the victim was in the wrong as they had rear ended them, and the fact that it was 4 or 5 testimonies against 1...

This usually resulted in payouts by the insurance companies, easy money right there

reply to post by muse7


Maybe it was wrong of me to jump to such conclusions but I just don't see why anyone who was here legally would do such a thing considering the penalties they would face.

As for why this person did such a thing I cannot answer that. I was astonished when it all went down and there was no logical reason for this to be done.

I can say for a a fact that this was intentional there is no doubt about that.

If I had just driven away and not returned to the scene who would have verified what happened?

The man who caused the accident could have lied about the whole thing in an attempt to scam money.

reply to post by TV_Nation


Nice try.

But apparently neither you nor that supposed "illegal immigrant" know much about insurance. Or traffic law.

As the car got close you can guess what happened... The old junker car pulled right out in front of the car that was behind me smashing into the side of the person car.

(Emphasis mine)

Generally speaking, the law holds that the driver Exiting, into the flow of traffic, is to yeild the Right of Way to on-coming trafic.

In your scenario, the accident would have been deemed the spanish speaking driver's fault; it would have been his insurance (if he had insurnace) that would have been forced to repair the Mercedes.

Additionally, the Mercedes driver's insurance company would not be held responsible for any of the Spanish-speaker's injuries or the damage to his car, in as much as he was at fault for the collision for failure to yeild. Now, he'll probably wind up in jail; maybe be deported.


Unless that was his intention, I hardly think it makes for a very good "scam"!



So what was Your motivation for posting this piece?

What's on your Agenda, Hmmm?




Edit for spelling and to add: Your presence, witness testimony would have been unnecessary; the mere observable fact that the side of the Mercedes was hit would have been proof enough of the clunker driver's violation. Furthermore, any allegation that the Mercedes was speeding (contributory negligence) would be countered by measuring the available skid marks left by the two vihicles.

[edit on 27-6-2010 by Bhadhidar]

reply to post by Bhadhidar


I have no agenda here and if you think I am out to demonize Mexicans then you can jog off for all I care.

This is something I experienced and some people in this thread have brought up some good points as to why this was probably not a good idea.

Maybe this man did not have a good understanding of how these things work like you pointed out in your post.

If the man had no drivers license or insurance then he probably does not have a very good grasp of what the laws of the road are or how things like accidents are handled.

I was dumbfounded like I mentioned before it did not make sense to me either. The conclusion that I came to is that the man had an agenda of some sort. It could have been for money or for a free ride back to mexico for all I know.

Edit to add: As for the question on how I knew he was Mexican. I think the Flag of Mexico tattooed on his arm gave it away but maybe getting other nationalities flags tattooed on your body is the new in thing

[edit on 27-6-2010 by TV_Nation]

i've seen these type of things happen. not from illegals though. well maybe some were who knows.

what they do is load up a car full of people and then sit in a lane right next to a turn lane. when it's your turn to go they will cut you off and then drive about 20 feet and slam on the brakes.

they're expecting you to be mad and hit the gas. sadly it works and they all claim injuries.

reply to post by IvanObanion

what they do is load up a car full of people and then sit in a lane right next to a turn lane. when it's your turn to go they will cut you off and then drive about 20 feet and slam on the brakes.

Scams are scams. I personally suspect some of my own family members in some of these scams.

I just find it curious that they have been in several accidents, never their fault, and always seem to get a nice settlement out of it.

The only way I can see this working is if the con artist happens to stike a deal with the victim for cash before the cops show up. To do this he would have to speak english. He would probably hope that the shock and his fast and loud complaining will cause the person to feel like he may be at fault and want to throw some cash out and go home.

The con artist may very well be legal, maybe even a US citizen but if the cops show up he will stick to the "no hablo" role (especially if it's a sanctuary city) hoping that the cop will probably just let him walk.

reply to post by bowlbyville


you're absolutley correct. insurance claims can be a nightmare. my mother used to work for farmer's insurance.

the main thing to be concerned about is the police report. if the cop makes a mistake as simple as saying the wrong side of the car got hit and there is no other evidence then guess what. you lose.

there is no way for anyone to establish whether or not a light was green or red. it's too complicated and the program just comes up in binary and no one has the resources to sift through every claim to figure it out.

however you can definately do things like take pictures. this always helps. especially if sunlight or a sign or a tree obscures your view. go back and photograph it from the same angle at the same time.