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How odometer fraud can happen
Someone will buy a vehicle, and disconnect the speedometer, which is under the hood. The speedometer tracks how many miles the vehicle is used and sends that reading to the odometer you see on the dashboard. If the owner disconnects it, there will be no reading, no tracking. Therefore, when they reconnect the speedometer, the odometer on the dash will read a much lower mileage than what should be there.
Now, if the fraud wasn’t thought of until the owner was ready to sell it, they need to find another option. Unfortunately, that’s pretty simple. The fraudulent car owner will replace the original speedometer with one from another car. That can easily be done at a junkyard. All they have to do is find a car with fewer miles on it, and replace their speedometer with the “new” one. It’s odometer fraud from a junkyard.
It can be quite difficult to figure out whether or not the car you are looking to buy has been mishandled. Ask to take the car for a test drive. Look at the mileage on the vehicle from the odometer reading. If you know cars pretty well, then you could probably tell if the car is too used or too old to have that little amount of miles on it. You could also (if the owner doesn’t come with you), visit a friend or your mechanic. Ask them to check the speedometer and see what they think.
Open the hood, and locate the speedometer. Does it look like the speedometer belongs on that particular vehicle? Ask the seller some questions about the mileage on the car if you are suspicious, and carefully watch their reactions while listening to their answers. If they are looking like they are lying, they probably are. If they committed odometer fraud, the seller might get nervous or uncomfortable with your questions. They will try to hide it, but look for signs of lying, such as fidgeting, itching, and talking too much or too little.
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