Video shows brazen alleged car insurance scam on Belt Parkway
NEW YORK -- Two women say they were victims of insurance fraud while driving, targeted by the same group of people on the Belt Parkway.
CBS News New York spoke to both of them about the encounters, which were caught on camera.
The NYPD says an investigation has been launched by the department's Criminal Enterprise Investigation Unit's Fraudulent Collision Investigation Squad.
Dash cam video shows one driver's story
A Wednesday morning drive turned terrifying for Ashpia Natasha. Her front dash cam video caught a driver in a silver car abruptly stop and back up into her SUV on the Belt Parkway.
"The guy in the silver Honda, he just went from the middle lane and cut me off," Natasha said.
Her rear camera captured a red Kia seen pulling up in front of the car just moments after the crash. As four occupants are seen coming out, one of them slips into the Kia.
"My initial thoughts were that I was caught in some kind of road rage," Natasha said.
Once information was exchanged, Natasha says the group was more than ready to move on, convincing her that she was caught up in insurance fraud.
"That's when they started saying that they needed to leave and they had to go pick up their baby. So they're kind of rushing to leave," Natasha said.
"Everyone is looking for like a quick payday"
It turns out, just two months earlier, the same thing happened to Alyssa Attanasio. She said her dash cam caught her slamming into the same silver car after it made an abrupt stop on the Belt. And, just like with Natasha, Attanasio's rear camera captured a red Kia.
It wasn't until Attanasio's insurance inspector showed her Natasha's dash cam video that she started to think the same people targeted her.
"It's disgusting. You know? Everybody's looking for like a, like a quick payday. It's much harder to get up and go to a job, report to a job daily," Attanasio said.
According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, fraudulent car accidents occur in areas with a greater volume of vehicles, and in wealthier communities, as drivers there are perceived to have better insurance companies. Also, the bureau says criminals prey upon females driving alone.
"It's traumatic, even though we're all still here to talk about it. It is very taxing. It is very taxing because you worry about yourself. You worry about, you know, people suing you and everything like that," Attanasio said.