‘I believe you were recently involved in an accident?’

A LOT of us have had these phone calls. But what are they all about? Is it a scam? What are they after? Raw Deal has had a look at this type of cold call.

The call itself

The initial call is often from a fairly clever robot, with an accent that makes it sound as if it is based in this country. But it is a machine that plays recordings. It looks for trigger words and phrases, like “Yes I have”, at which point you will be transferred to “a supervisor”, usually a foreign accent as these companies aren’t operating in the UK.

Why do they do it?

These people are agents for “ambulance chaser” legal firms. If they call 200 to 300 people a day and find six or seven who have been in a car accident, they can sell on their details for £200 to £300 each.

Do people fall for it?

Quite a few people have been in some sort of accident in the past two or three years. They might answer yes.

And we live in a compensation culture. People hear of massive pay-outs to accident victims and think that they might get some too.

We are used to hearing about PPI claims, in which unsuspecting people are due several thousand pounds because of a loan taken out 10 or 15 years ago they’d largely forgotten.

A phone call offering surprise money can be tempting.

What happens next?

If you’d been in an accident, and have a valid claim because of that, then it is possible you might get a compensation pay-out. But these ambulance-chaser companies will take a huge chunk of that payment.

What should we do?

If you had suffered an injury then you would have contacted a solicitor you trust, in your area, who could give good advice and who will be transparent about the costs, risks and any possible money owed.

And, of course, you will know you have been involved in an accident which genuinely was caused by negligence and that you have a clear case for being compensated.

Can we fight back?

Asking: “Where did you get my number from” usually results in the call being terminated.

But don’t be worried. There are no legal proceedings under way, you haven’t done anything wrong and you shouldn’t feel you are even being impolite by asking how a robot obtained your number.

There is rarely an unsuspected pot of gold under a pretty rainbow. You get nothing for nothing.