Viral staged crash on NYCs Belt Parkway probed by NYPD as experts warn fraud accident cases are on the rise

The NYPD is investigating the disturbing staged accident on the Belt Parkway that went viral on TikTok — as experts said such insurance scams are on the rise in New York because fraudsters are “getting away with it.” A police spokesperson said Tuesday that detectives have interviewed victim Ashpia Natasha about the caught-on-dash cam Oct.16 crash, in which another driver reversed into her front bumper on the busy Queens highway just before several passengers spilled out and tried to claim they were hurt.“The investigation remains ongoing by the NYPD Criminal Enterprise Investigation Unit’s Fraudulent Collision Investigation Squad,” a department spokesperson said in a brief statement.Unfortunately, cases like Natasha’s are becoming more and more common as brazen crooks search for scams to run on unsuspecting victims — even old-school schemes like cutting someone off, slamming on the brakes and then squeezing them for insurance money afterward.“It’s an ongoing trend, and the fraudsters are getting away with it,” Mark Friedlander, spokesperson for the Insurance Information Institute, a nonprofit trade organization, told The Post on Tuesday.

“They’re able to cash in on these schemes, and until they’re caught and put behind bars, the schemes are not going to slow down.”Friedlander said staged accidents like the one on the Belt Parkway cost insurers about $20 billion every year — and raise the rates for everyone else.They’re most common in heavily congested areas like California, which saw 5,366 staged crashes in 2023, and New York, which came in second last year with 1,729 such “accidents,” he said.Those numbers are rising, especially in the New York metro area — the Empire State saw a 14% increase from 2022 to 2023, Friedlander said, while New Jersey saw a 58% increase, from 158 in 2022 to 250 in 2023.More often than not, two cars will be involved — one in front of the victim and one in back — and they’ll sandwich their un...