Car sale cheats wind back odometers in online scam

    Michelle Ainsworth
    Herald Sun
    February 04, 2013


Rogue car sellers are changing odometer readings before putting cars up for sale. Source: Herald Sun

DODGY car sellers are taking 100,000km off the clock then putting the cars up for sale online in a scam catching out unsuspecting buyers.    

The leading website, carsales.com.au, has warned that its enforcement officers are finding at least one rogue seller every week.

And consumer groups have revealed that some car dealers are cashing in on the wind-back rort.

A Carsales privacy and security officer said the site had processes in place to identify cars that had been tampered with.

"We certainly do have that kind of activity on the site, which we do work on and we do stop," the officer said. "We do come across it regularly, but not in high volume ... I would say every week."    

Those who try to sell vehicles that have been tampered with are blocked, and their details are then passed on to Consumer Affairs Victoria and police.

Consumer Affairs spokesman Samantha Gunner said five people were prosecuted for the act in 2011-2012.

Hillside man Frank Spagnolo was fined $3000 without conviction last November after he pleaded guilty in Sunshine Magistrates' Court to tampering with an odometer.

Mr Spagnolo bought a 2009 Toyota Hilux from Pickles auctions last April, which had an odometer reading of 196,300km.

He replaced the instrument panel with a new speedo reading 56,000km, and tried to sell the ute through another auction house.

He was caught before the sale went through.

In August, 2011, a Maidstone car dealer, Simon's Car Sales, was fined $50,000 for selling cars with odometers that had been tampered with.   

It also had to pay five customers $34,750 in compensation. In five breaches, cars' odometers were wound back by between 40,000 and 120,000km.

The practices was uncovered after one victim tried to sell the car through an auction house that had previously sold that car with its original odometer.

Ms Gunner said that tampering with odometers was fraud.

michelle.ainsworth@news.com.au

aquascoot wrote on Feb 4^th, 2013 at 7:03am:




hahahaha dont tell crook but I think they have been doing this for years..

Quote:



Yeah they wound that one right back to zero 

wouldn't you think in this day and age of advanced electronic design and security that it would be almost impossible for someone other than the factory to change the odometer reading !!

what a joke