When Houston high school chemistry teacher Tramesha Lashon Fox grew tired of making the payments on her Chevy Malibu, she offered two failing students passing grades to torch her car for the insurance money. She was fired and served 90 days in jail.
"Vehicle give-ups were a very large trend when the economy tanked," says Quiggle.
It also has become a brazen plan B for street racers who wreck their rides.
"Street racing is mostly illegal, so if you bang up your car in a race, your insurance company is not going to pay," Quiggle says.
"One of the scams in street racing is, you wreck your car in an illegal race but then you claim that it was hit by a hit-and-run driver or you ran into a tree. You can get free repairs or even upgrades that way."
Some street racers set their car on fire or dump it in a lake or river for the insurance money.
"Of course, insurance companies have to look at the damage to see if it's consistent with the way the claimant said it happened," Quiggle says.