109 People Caught in Car Accident Insurance Fraud to Fund Entertainment Expenses

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A total of 109 individuals were caught deliberately causing car accidents to obtain insurance money in order to cover entertainment and living expenses. Most of them were in their 20s and 30s, causing about 1,600 accidents and collecting over 8 billion KRW in insurance payouts.

On the 26th, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced that it had identified 109 suspects through continuous investigations of intentional accidents involving vehicles changing lanes last year. These individuals caused a total of 1,581 car accidents and received 8.4 billion KRW in insurance payments. The average insurance payout per person reached 77 million KRW.

The suspects were mostly unemployed individuals without steady income in their 20s and 30s, motorcycle delivery workers, and those employed in automobile-related industries. They conspired in advance with acquaintances such as friends, family, and coworkers to stage intentional car accidents to secure living and entertainment expenses. In many cases, two or more people shared the roles of perpetrator and victim, or multiple people rode together in the vehicle involved in the intentional accident.

The most frequently used method was failure to comply with lane change rules (60.2%). Despite confirming the presence of a vehicle changing lanes, they either did not slow down or increased speed to deliberately cause a rear-end collision.

Violations of intersection traffic rules (13.3%) were also exploited. Even when confirming the presence of a vehicle entering the intersection or making a left (or right) turn, they did not slow down and proceeded as is, causing contact accidents. Other methods included deliberately causing accidents by not avoiding or stopping for vehicles reversing in the lane ('general road reversing' at 6.3%), targeting vehicles violating traffic laws with a high fault ratio for insurance fraud victims.

Many demanded settlement money and unpaid repair costs from insurance companies to use the received insurance money for living expenses. Of the 4.5 billion KRW in personal insurance payouts, settlement money paid for future medical expenses, lost wages, and consolation money accounted for 53.3% (2.4 billion KRW). In the 3.9 billion KRW in property insurance payouts, unpaid repair costs requested directly by vehicle owners for vehicle damage accounted for 35.9% (1.4 billion KRW).

The vehicles used by those causing intentional accidents were mainly private cars, motorcycles, and rental cars. Among the 1,581 intentional car accidents, based on 1,552 cases where vehicle numbers were confirmed, private cars accounted for the largest share at 69.6% (1,080 cases), followed by motorcycles at 19.0% (295 cases), and rental cars at 9.7% (151 cases). Motorcycle accidents were mostly intentional accidents targeting personal insurance payouts (settlement money). Pedestrian accidents involved no property damage to vehicles and had the lowest average insurance payout per case at 3.6 million KRW.

The FSS urged drivers to practice defensive driving to avoid becoming victims of intentional accidents. In addition, if suspected of insurance fraud accidents, they advised to ▲immediately notify the police and insurance company for assistance ▲carefully decide on on-site settlements ▲calmly respond by securing evidence and witnesses.

An FSS official stated, "We plan to actively support traffic accident prevention activities in areas and intersections where frequent intentional accidents were identified during continuous investigations," adding, "We will continue to strengthen investigations of frequent accident-causing vehicles such as those involved in lane changes to suppress the occurrence of intentional car accidents."

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