{"id":525386,"date":"2026-07-14T09:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/525386\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T09:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:58:11","slug":"australian-actress-christine-whelan-browne-loses-car-in-insurance-company-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/525386\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian actress Christine Whelan Browne loses car in insurance company scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/australia-news\" class=\"sc-jNzrEP eIMCEl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Australian<\/a> theatre actress Christine Whelan Browne is warning others of an insurance company scam after losing her car and being told to pay $10,500. <\/p>\n<p>The 44-year-old was caught up in the fleece when her car was rammed and she tried to follow up on her claim with AAMI. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4b1ec1a949813ea0cd503c254d5b7f439e0de3dfc22b12c79fc866db593bb36f.png\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">Australian theatre actress Christine Whelan Browne is warning others of an insurance company scam after losing her car and being told to pay $10,500.\u00a0Christine Whelan Browne<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs it now turns out, these scammers had put their phone number under AAMI claim support,\u201d she said in a social media video. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI called this number and they were like, \u2018Oh yeah, we\u2019ll bring you a replacement car within half an hour\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore I knew it, someone had come and given me a car and taken my car.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Browne said she contacted the insurance company again and was told they had never organised the replacement car. <\/p>\n<p>Ringing the number again, the scammers told her that she would need to pay $10,500 worth of damage to her car to get it back. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I\u2019ve got this car that they gave me I\u2019m driving around in, and they\u2019ve got my car, and they won\u2019t give it back,\u201d Browne said. <\/p>\n<p>AAMI is investigating what has happened and is working with Browne to get her car back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are urgently investigating what has happened to Ms Whelan-Browne and will work with her to provide assistance, including legal support to help her get her car back,\u201d an AAMI spokesperson said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce we have her car we can begin repairs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe encourage any of our customers who suspect they are a victim of a scam to contact us immediately.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/nine.com.au\/\" class=\"sc-jNzrEP eIMCEl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nine.com.au<\/a> understands Browne received an ad for a scam website when she searched AAMI\u2019s claim number on Google.<\/p>\n<p>AAMI is aware that some companies impersonate it and customers believe they are contacting their insurer. <\/p>\n<p>The company takes legal action and works with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to target these scams. <\/p>\n<p>It also works with Google to respond to misleading and deceptive advertising. <\/p>\n<p>ASIC has removed more than 25,000 scam and phishing websites since 2023 and encourages customers to verify businesses before handing over personal or financial information. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cScammers continue to use fake and impersonation websites to target Australians and can mimic trusted businesses and brands to appear legitimate,\u201d an ASIC spokesperson said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cASIC coordinates the removal of investment scam and phishing websites through its website takedown capability and works with specialist cybercrime detection providers to identify and disrupt harmful online activity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian theatre actress Christine Whelan Browne is warning others of an insurance company scam after losing her car&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-525386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}