I'm struggling to see how this scam is actually supposed to work - if your car sustains damage, wouldn't your insurance just cover the cost to repair that damage, meaning you are just back at square one?
I think that would be against the terms of the policy for the types of insurance you can get here in Sweden, so basically another level of fraud. But yeah, that makes sense, you could double/triple-dip and get ahead that way.
I think once the check is cut the car is never fixed. Instead you find an unscrupulous body shop willing to fabricate an invoice for the insurance company for a share of the payout.
I guess you'd still have a scratched car at that point, though. Maybe you need to combine it with a dishonest repair shop massively inflating the bill, along with an insurance company that doesn't pay enough attention.