Seoulscapade

Everyone’s in on it. The scammers are, of course. The hospitals are because they get revenue from patients unnecessarily taking up hospital beds and having needless tests. The insurance companies are because they know the hospitals are in on it yet they do nothing about it. The government must be because it’s apparently doing nothing to stop it. It’s insurance scamming, Korean style. And I’ve seen how it’s done.

We had just hopped into a taxi and the taxi was slowly pulling away from the curb. Behind us traffic was waiting at a red light, and we had a clear three lanes in front of us. It had been only several seconds since the taxi started moving. Suddenly, out of no where, an older model SUV that must have emerged from side street came along side, over took us, then veered in front and seemed rub its back end against the nose of the taxi, then stop. This was all happening in slow motion, mind you, because the speeds involved would have been approximate to those of a fast walk.

I was thinking, what an idiot, with nothing in front or behind, at the speed of 10-5 kilometres an hour, this moron has managed to hit us. As usual in such incidents, the guy got out, and so did the woman with him, both of them with stern faces. Our taxi driver, sighing and apparently resigned to it all, got out, too. From the remonstrances and body language I observed, it was clear the taxi driver was not putting up any kind of fight, yielding entirely to vigorous gestures and complaints of the SUV driver.

While this was going on, I also observed that the other side of the SUV had dents in it. The side that nudged the taxi also had other dents on that the taxi clearly did not make. Only later did it register that these dents may have been from other minor “accidents” like the one I was just involved in.

After the driver got back in, we learned that his insurance would probably have to pay for the damage. There was no point in contest it. Since his was the rear vehicle in the accident, it was his fault, and that was that. Well, I was pretty incensed. I usually know bullshit when I see it. Adamantly, I told my wife to explain to the driver that we were witnesses and that we could help him. I insisted several times over that it was clearly not his fault. But it all met with a shake of the head. This guy was really resigned to it all. He sighed all the way to our home.

I’m pretty certain that driver was the victim of scammer. Since then I’ve heard of other incidents, one involved a Korean coworker. In fact, she’s experienced two instances involving scammers. One of them was with a motorbike rider. It seems he bumped the edge of her car. After they stopped he was very angry at her and she got pretty upset. But there was no damage to his motorbike and no apparent injury. From memory, I think he claimed he needed to go to hospital and my coworker’s insurance paid for it. The second incident involved a driving instructor, of all people. He and my coworker’s car hit bumper to bumper. They exchanged details and moved on. A few hours later my coworker receives a phone, and it’s the guy from the accident claiming that he feels dizzy and his head hurts, or something equally pathetic. Once again, the insurance company had to pay this guy because of his insistence that he needed to go to hospital and have everything checked out.

Here’s where we get into Catch-22 territory. Those scammers insist that they have to go to hospital and that means that the insurance company will have to pay the bill, but it can also offer some money up front instead to pay for the hospital expenses. The insurance company knows it’s a con so it takes the cheapest way out and offers the scammer money. Naturally, the scammer accepts that, pockets the money and doesn’t actually bother going to hospital. In other words, the insurance company pays the scammer to just go away.

An insurance guy explained all of this to my coworker. He also cited in incident with a foreign car that was in an accident but sustained absolutely no damage. From what I gather, the driver was threatening to have his car inspected and repaired. At that news, the insurance company paid him about $5000 to just go away. Foreign cars, I take it, are very expensive to repair.

For those people who do go to hospital, they might get a brief hospital vacation off work, all paid for. They may not even have to be at the hospital all of the time. They could go out for dinner for example. What’s going on here? Well, the hospital knows it’s a con, too, so it might keep people around longer for unnecessary tests, thus boosting profits. After all, the insurance company pays for it all.

The insurance company knows its a con and it knows the hospital knows, and the hospital knows it knows, and the scammer knows that the insurance company and the hospital know it’s all a con. See what I mean? Basically, everyone knows its a con, and ultimately insurance company customers pay for it because it’s no doubt factored into policies and higher premiums.

So we come back to our taxi driver and the old SUV, dented on both sides. Obviously, those people in the SUV were going to do something similar to what I’ve described—cite the need for repairs, pocket insurance money, and drive off with all their little dents unrepaired, but useful for the next “nudging” incident.

Think about this for a moment, both myself and my coworker have been witness to scams, and we’re just part of a small department. Could that be a coincidence or an indication of just how much scamming is going on out there? It seems to be an unspoken national disgrace, and no one seems to have the will to do anything about it. Perhaps that’s because it’s just too lucrative for too many parties.