The claims on the internet that propagate that the used cars industry will be inundated with cars that have been damaged during the storm, thus putting the customers at risk of buying the wrong ones have been found to be untrue. These claims were reviewed by The Associated Press which got to the bottom of the claims to unearth the truth. The numbers of cars that have actually been damaged during the floods are less and in most cases, the owners plan to get their vehicles repaired and reuse them. These predictions seem to have been made by a company that represents one of the largest groups in the country that sells repair histories and vehicle titles. According to the claims from this company, the number of cars that have been damaged during Superstorm Sandy are more than the cars that were damaged during Hurricane Katrina that tore through the Gulf Coast in the year 2005. However, the claims that have been received by the auto insurance providers were analyzed by The Associated Press and the number seems to be a fraction of the numbers being specified by the false claims.
Leading auto insurance providers in the country such as USAA, Nationwide, Progressive, State Farm and New Jersey Manufacturers have so far received a total of 38,000 claims related to car –damage due to this storm. Companies such as Liberty Mutual, Gieco, Allstate and Farmers refused to release the information about the number of claims they have received so far. Since most of the regions that have been affected by the storm are still in the process of assessing the damage, chances of newer claims being filed are high. Despite this, the numbers may not show a significant rise.
The spokesperson for National Insurance Crime Bureau which is an insurance group that watches out for frauds in this industry, Frank Scafidi, has said that the insurers who are being monitored by this group are filing fewer claims than they did during Hurricane Katrina.
