Insurance Companies Insist 'Unbreakable' System Means You Stole Your Own Car

from the sorry,-won't-pay-out-for-that dept

It’s no secret that insurance companies have to deal with plenty of fraud — but it appears they sometimes take fighting that fraud too far. For instance, apparently many insurance companies really believe that the various car anti-theft systems are unbreakable, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. Just a few months ago, researchers showed how easy it was to break auto anti-theft systems found in many vehicles today. Yet, insurance companies apparently like to believe in the fiction that it’s impossible to break the RFID-based system that protects these cars. It gets them out of paying insurance claims — though, it leaves plenty of victims in a pretty deep hole (with the insurance company often accusing them of fraud), through no fault of their own. At what point does someone sue an insurance company over the false claim that these systems are unbreakable? Of course, the insurance companies will probably just respond by raising your premium and noting that you shouldn’t get a discount for such anti-theft systems, since they’re ineffective.


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Comments on “Insurance Companies Insist 'Unbreakable' System Means You Stole Your Own Car”

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25 Comments
rijit (profile) says:

If you can sue them...

Insurance companies spend a lot of money in Washington to get legislation passed so you can’t sue them. It has happened in the past, is happening now, and more than likely, it will happen again. After all, with government on the take, who could blame them? If you can buy laws to keep people from sueing you, why not? It will save them money in the end. Pay a million or two now in contributions or pay hundreds of millions in law suits.

AMP says:

Yeah, this is a bunch of crap. Auto insurance premiums are supposedly lower the more anti-theft devices you have on your car. So you spend $ up front to “lower” your premiums. Then your car gets stolen and they tell you that because you had anti-theft devices this is a fraudulent claim so you are screwed. They get you coming and going.

How much would my insurance premiums be if I took my anti-theft device and shoved it up my insurance agent’s ass?

Neopolitan Bone'na'park says:

Revolution!

I say we stage a new revolution, lets take our kids and as many worldy possessions as we can fit in a blanket tide around a stick and head for some foriegn land where people are not as corrupted and insurance executives arn’t ruling there villages with an evil fist, and pressing their whoremongering religion on the poverty stricken towns people. What do you say! ONWARD BACK TO ENGLAND! … I wonder if they still like tea, I hear theres a bunch of it in Boston.

jime says:

best anti-theft device goin’ is drive a vehicle thief’s aren’t after….

you can creatively bash a fender or three, and have a car or truck thief’s won’t look twice at, n still have a mechanically sound & good runnin’ ride………

havin’ slick pimped out, or high end rides are all BS anyway, just cost more $$ to insure, n higher payments to the robbers, errr, dealer n bank….

Anonymous Coward says:

we all know i fauto insurance was not manditory it would be dirt cheap. Because the government states we must have it or we face tickets and other troubles the insurnace companies can stick us for what ever they wish. If there was no supporting it then they would be at the mercy of us buying it and we could get good coverage for peanuts.

ProgramAIR says:

I Stole My Own Car, sort of...

A month after I bought a used car, it suddenly refused to start. I figured the starter was bad or a fuse was blown. So, since it’s a manual transmission I pushed it up to 5mph and dropped it into second gear to start it.

I continued push starting it for a few days, about a dozen times. I replaced the starter, checked the wiring, ignition switch, fuses, fusible links, relays – all to no avail. Eventually I took it into a repair shop and they discovered there was a well hidden 3rd party anti-theft system. I wasn’t told about it when I bought the car, and it had been set off some how.

Clearly, that anti-theft system didn’t prevent me from starting and driving away in the car.

Chris says:

Re: I Stole My Own Car, sort of...

And do you know what would have happened if your car had been stolen, thats right! The insurence company would have sued you for a fraud claim, dropped your coverage, and added you to the bad list (The list you dont want to be on!)

Come on, when does common sense kick in. Next they will say that because our homes have buglar alarms we couldnt have been robbed so we are making a fraud claim.

Joe Blow says:

The best theft device ever used is a ...

tow truck or “roll back” as we call’em down here in the SE USA. I don’t care how unstealable your system ain’t nothin’ gonna keep somebody from drilling a hole through the battery to disable the alarm and then dragging that sucker up on a flat bed roll back and driving off.

Andy says:

Re: The best theft device ever used is a ...

Drilling a hole through the battery? Wouldn’t be easier to take the red wire off the one of the terminals? Wouldn’t be easier to use a normal tow truck than a flat bed truck? With a tow truck you can just pull in front of said car with unbreakable anti-theft devices and have the car jacked in less than 10 seconds, no drilling or chains required. Or you can do it the Chicago way: at a stoplight or gas station order someone out of their car at gunpoint, drive to West-Loop chop-shop, buy crack, write home to mom. You: 1 + Crack, Anti-theft device: 0.

JL says:

“we all know [if] auto insurance was not manditory it would be dirt cheap.”

Quite possibly. Did you know that you can get aircraft insurance which includes a million in liability + full coverage of the aircraft (over $150,000) for around a thousand dollars a year (give or take, depending on the type of aircraft and pilot certificate held).

Try insuring a similarly priced motor vechicle for that rate!

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