A driver who heard a “very loud noise” while on the road was then approached by a man who demanded £450 off him, and he has urged others to be mindful of the potential “scam”.
Teacher hears loud noise and is pulled over
A teacher was driving through a “busy, tight town centre” when he “heard a very loud noise” but after checking his mirrors, he decided he had not hit anything and continued his journey. A few minutes later, he was “pulled over by a vehicle presumably telling [him] something had fallen off [his car]”, or that his “exhaust was dragging or something like that”.
A man then approached his car at the passenger door side, and the teacher is “certain” he “pushed” his wing mirror into the car to “simulate a collision”. The man told him: “You’ve smashed my wing mirror and driven off, and I am going to call the police and inform them of this crime.”
Man had family in the car and demanded £450
The teacher has “never been in a collision before” and though he did not believe he was “at fault”, the “huge, clanging noise” had set him on edge and “really spooked” him, especially as the man was “very believable”. The man “also had his family in the car” – a woman and two children in the back seat – which added to his credibility and further helped to “throw” the teacher.
He started threatening “police action” for the teacher’s supposed “crime” and told him if he “wanted to avoid a fine and points on his license”, he “should pay him for the repair to his car.” The teacher explained the man searched on eBay for the damaged wing mirror and showed him a picture of the auction, with an asking price of £450.
Teacher discovers false plates and avoids payment
On Reddit, he said: “In hindsight this was surprisingly fast. Going through insurers would have cost me more in the long run no doubt so to save a police investigation I agreed to pay for the repair. My eBay searches didn’t turn up this replacement, but he had an answer for everything.”
But alarm bells were still ringing in the back of the teacher’s mind, so he searched the man’s MOT status on gov.uk and found the licence plate did not match up – the “car was running false plates for this scam”. The teacher continued: “Fortunately I ran his plate on gov.uk and found it was registered to a completely different car that was taken off the road in 2012. He tried to explain this badly. I said, ‘actually we should call the police’, and all of a sudden his demeanour changed. The cost went down, he’s still arguing with me I’m at fault and I’ll get points and wreck my insurance. I said, ‘fine, let’s call the police and work this out’. It was at this point we agreed to go our separate ways.”
Teacher urges drivers to 'be safe'
After reflecting on the encounter, the teacher “would do a lot differently” in the same situation but stressed the benefits of hindsight. He added he would have “insisted” on photographing “both vehicles” and their IDs, but was still relieved to walk “away with no loss, other than time and a loss in humanity”. As the encounter was “incredibly convincing” and happened at “5pm in broad daylight”, he urged drivers to “be safe”. He was keen to share his story on Reddit as he had not found many UK posts about the so-called “wing mirror scam”. The teacher claimed to have reported the incident to the police.
