A used car problem that many people believe is long-since solved still claims hundreds of thousands of victims every year. Odometer fraud, also known as “clocking”, “rolling”, “spinning” and other derivatives, is the illegal practice of changing the mileage on a car’s odometer to make it appear that the car has lower mileage than it actually does. Current mileage is one of the key factors people use to help determine how much to pay for a used car.
It used to be that con men would have to take apart the instrument cluster in a car to access the analog odometer. They would roll back the odometer by hand using a small screwdriver or dentist’s tool. With today’s digital odometers, it can be done using a laptop computer and a software program found with a simple Google search.
A recent USA Today article (“Take a skeptical eye to low-mileage used cars”, Sept. 9, 2008) profiles this new twist on the age-old scam. A significant number of “clocked” cars are sold by curbstoners, people that sell multiple cars without getting a dealer license, and are listed in local classified ads or online sites like craigslist.org. These cars also may have additional problems, such as a major accident and/or salvage title, lemon history or flood damage from storms like Hurricane Katrina or most recently, Hurricane Ike.
USA Today highlights several recent cases involving con men rolling back digital odometers:
- Dallas, Texas – Seller Massoud Mortazavi-Koupai pleads guilty to false odometer disclosure.
- Kansas City, Missouri – Seller Michael Myers sentenced to community service for involvement in an odometer scam.
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Three wholesalers indicted for allegedly rolling back odometers of more than 600 used cars.