Car Sales Fraud Exposed

There is currently no uniform national law requiring disclosure of major automobile damage when the title is transferred. As a result, many consumers own vehicles with fraudulent titles, titles that have been cleaned up to falsely reflect damage history. This is known as automobile title washing.

The 1985 odometer fraud act stands as a pillar of consumer legislation which has worked. It has made our streets and wallets safer from the con artists who for years deceived countless American drivers. In 1985 a study estimated that 50 percent of all leased vehicles had odometers which were altered. A similar study released by the Department of Transportation this year estimated that the tamper rate for 1992 was 5 percent. Now, I suggest that that is progress. Americans are also saving billions of dollars. Before the truth in mileage act, American car buyers were losing more than $3 billion a year to clockers who erased thousands of miles of wear and tear from car odometers.

The secret to the success of the odometer fraud bill lies in the car title. By affixing odometer readings to the car titles, the con men were finally outsmarted. Under the truth in mileage act even the most unsophisticated car buyer can now inspect an auto title and understand any car's odometer history.

When a car is destroyed in a crash, it is generally sent to the junkyard where it is stripped for parts or in some cases rebuilt. Most States require that salvage or rebuilt cars carry a designation on their title so that the consumers are alerted to the condition of the auto that they are purchasing. By so-called branding the title, consumers are put on notice to exercise due care.

Unfortunately, several States do not require any title brands. Fraud artists use these States to wash titles of the salvaged cars and come up with a clean designation. Once a clean title is obtained, rebuilt wrecks are put on used car lots and sold to unsuspecting consumers.

There certainly have been examples of cars cut in half, spot welded together, repainted, and sold with clean titles. One case we have heard of involved a car whose frame was held together with chicken wire. I suspect that is an extreme case, but it is one case that we know about. Most tragic are the cases where drivers have been killed or maimed when their rebuilt wrecks simply failed or fell apart. Only after the tragedy did buyers learn of the salvage history of their vehicle. Experts have estimated that car buyers lose as much as $4 billion a year to salvage fraud, and millions of drivers unknowingly face increased risk of injury and accident.

Sammy is constantly researching interesting information and writing articles to make it easy for his readers to understand.

To see more of his writing, visit his web pages about License Plate Search Options sites and Social Security Death Records.