Insurance Industry Strikes Back At Excessive Tow Charges
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Complaints about towing charges in Illinois are up 24 percent this year, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
2 Investigator Pam Zekman, who has been reporting on these abuses, reports the NICB is pushing a new program to educate the public.
A new law was passed that required accident towing companies to be licensed by the state. It included regulations to protect the public from towing abuses.
But enforcement of that law is on hold, pending the outcome of federal lawsuit filed by the towing industry challenging the new protections.
They're called accident chasers, because they descend on crash scenes to sign up vulnerable customers. Then they pad their bills with thousands of dollars in charges that include administrative, cleanup and storage fees for services motorists don't get.
"Chicago and Illinois are leading the nation right now in these kind of claims for us," Roger Morris of the NICB says.
Now on expressways and busy streets across the city, the organization has plastered billboards with warnings to try to educate drivers before they get ripped off at an accidence scene.
"The motoring public is being defrauded on a daily basis by unscrupulous tow operators that charge just exorbitant fees," the NICB's Michael Buchanan says.
The NICB says you should call your insurance company to get the name of a towing company they work with.
Never give your car to a towing company without getting the fees to be charged in writing.
And report towing, storage or car-repair fraud to the NICB at 1-800-TEL NICB.
