NY ranked poorly for odometer rollbacks

NYSpeed Automotive NYSpeed Off Topic
1

http://www.wivb.com/news/call-4-action/ny-ranked-worst-for-odometer-rollbacks

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Before you buy a used car, you might want to find out if the low mileage is too good to be true.

New York is ranked as one of the states with the highest number of mileage rollbacks. The deceptive and illegal practice of turning back car odometers before they are sold can lead to big time financial losses for the owner.
It can also present safety hazards. High mileage cars often need more maintenance and worn parts can fail unexpectedly.

Martin Jarmuz sold his 1992 Toyota Camry with more than 200,000 miles on it back in July, but it turned up on Craigslist showing only 79,000 miles on the odometer. Jarmuz couldn’t believe it.
But it does happen and a new study shows New Yorkers are more likely to be victims of odometer tampering than the rest of the country. Carfax officials say only California, Nevada, and Massachusetts have worse records for odometer rollbacks.

Carfax spokesman Chris Basso said, “There’s more than 70,000 cars that are on the road, right now throughout New York State that have an odometer rollback. That is costing New York consumers almost a quarter billion dollars in losses.”

And on a national level car owners could be losing as much as three quarters of a billion dollars on the value of their cars due to odometer fraud. If your odometer has been rolled back, chances are you won’t find out until it’s time to sell or trade your vehicle, and by then, it is too late.
Erie County Clerk Chris Jacobs says if you catch a rolled back odometer, there are things you can do, such as reporting it to the State DMV, which has an Odometer Crimes Unit.
“But we want folks to know that even if you catch on after a significant period of time, there are measures you can take. It is a federal crime, it is a fraud, it is very serious,” Jacobs said.
And if you thought digital odometers were any tougher to tamper, think again.

Basso explained, “But the digital odometer can actually be easier to rollback. Cars now are a giant computer, and it is as simple as plugging in a device into that computer and literally typing in the new mileage into the odometer reading, changing that within seconds.”
If you suspect odometer fraud, you can call the DMV’s Odometer Crimes Unit at 1-518-473-1079. Carfax also provides free odometer readings which you can purcahse at carfax.com .

2

“But we want folks to know that even if you catch on after a significant period of time, there are measures you can take. It is a federal crime, it is a fraud, it is very serious,” Jacobs said.

.

3

No surprise to me. I see it all the time. Customers come in with a low mile car and I look at it and can immediately tell it has twice the wear that it should, I run a Carfax for them and show them that years before they purchased it there way more miles on it. Biggest jump I saw was from one of the commercial counter guys at AutoZone, he had purchased a Mercedes ML320 from a dealer in Buffalo, he paid a lot for it because it only had 60K on it. I looked it over as he stopped by to have me check out his “great deal”. I could tell almost immediately. It had paint work all around, was rebadged as an ML55 AMG, the grill had been swapped, and had a bunch of little interior issues. We ran a Carfax and found out that two years ago it had 180K on it, and now was likely of over 200K. And dealer was selling it as 60K.

4

Another reason I’ll never buy a car without running a carfax on it. With yearly inspections it’s really tough to roll them back very far without it being really obvious on a carfax report.

5

usually dealers will do it with out of state cars, since most states dont have yearly inspections

6

Even then any dealer service records usually record mileage.

7

blows, that’s why you should really look over any car you buy

8

I hope he was able to return the car. I’m surprised the bank and insurance company didn’t see it was a ML320 when they ran the vin.

9

wow, imagine that. they make it seam like J ust anyone ca N do this, J ust cant trust anyone anymore.

10

lol.

11

LOL seeing that article totally made LZ’s day. :trolling:

12

It must be Friday because it took me way too long to see what you did there.

13

This just made it better

14

This is old they reported this last year, anyways always run a car fax, no matter what.

15

This forum is a better place without said scammers. :tup:

16

A Massapequa, N.Y., man pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Allentown, Pa., to conspiracy to commit odometer tampering, the Department of Justice announced. The defendant, Edward Capicchioni, 53, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to tamper with odometers and make false odometer certifications. Capicchioni rolled back odometers on used cars and trucks to make the vehicles appear more valuable. Doing business under the company name of The General’s Auto Sales, Capicchioni sold more than 50 vehicles with rolled back odometers.

“Tampering with a car’s odometer in order to trick a would-be buyer is not only pernicious, it is a federal crime,” said Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division Stuart F. Delery. “A car is an expensive purchase – indeed, for many of us, the most expensive purchase of our lives – and we have a right to know that the car we are buying is what it appears to be. The Department of Justice will continue to take action against those who seek to defraud consumers.”

Capicchioni admitted to purchasing high-mileage cars, sport-utility vehicles and trucks from individual sellers in New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Maryland. Capicchioni then worked with a co-conspirator to roll back and alter the odometers and resold the vehicles at a wholesale auto auction in Pennsylvania. Capicchioni also took steps to hide his odometer fraud scheme. He checked the Carfax public database to see if it included a mileage entry that was higher than the false, lower mileage to which he reset the odometer. When Carfax included a higher mileage, Capicchioni submitted to Carfax fraudulent documentation in the name of the vehicle’s prior owner, in order to have the higher mileage reading removed.

After Carfax discovered Capicchioni’s fraud scheme through an internal investigation, Carfax personnel alerted the Office of Odometer Fraud Investigation at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). NHTSA conducted additional investigation into the full scope of Capicchioni’s criminal activities, and Carfax continued to provide information and assistance throughout NHTSA’s investigation.

This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney John W. Burke with the Consumer Protection Branch of the U.S. Department of Justice.

NHTSA has established a special hotline to handle odometer fraud complaints. Individuals with information relating to odometer tampering should call (800) 424-9393 or (202) 366-4761. Tips on detecting and avoiding odometer fraud are available at www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nvs/pdf/811284.pdf. More information on odometer fraud is available at Odometer Fraud | NHTSA .

17

I wonder if anything changed in 2015?

18

This was a topic people were talking about over the weekend - how can someone rollback the mileage on vehicles that have their mileage in the digital form.

19

Ask JnJ, that’s his specialty. Obviously some sort of software. The mileage has to be recorded into some sort of memory within the cluster itself.

20

It’s not complicated google “digital odometer rollback tool” you’re just reprograming a chip on the board