Scams & Fraud

Used-car fraud is not random. The same schemes run again and again — odometer rollback, title washing, VIN cloning, curbstoning, flood cars sold as clean, salvage cars rebuilt and rebranded, deposits taken for cars that don’t exist — because each one exploits a specific gap between what a buyer can see and what a buyer can verify. This section takes the schemes one at a time: how each one actually works, who runs it and why it pays, what it looks like from the buyer’s side, and the specific checks that expose it. Where a scheme has been prosecuted, we link to the case. The aim is recognition: if you know the shape of the trick, you notice it before you’ve paid.