I have posted previously about used car dealers’ use of Carfax to fraudulently sell a wrecked car as not having been wrecked. In this report I want to show an actual example of how this occurs. A dealer sold the consumer a car as a clean unwrecked car. The dealer salesman told the consumer the car had not been wrecked on direct inquiry by the consumer. The salesman showed the dealer a clean Carfax. The dealer’s website described the car as an awesome family van.
The dealer bought the car at auction at which the car had an announced damage disclosure. The dealer used the lag time in the Carfax report to advertise that the car had no accident history. More importantly, the dealer placed extremely fine print in its contract that “disclosed” the wreck history of the car. The dealer claimed this fine print protected it from a law suit to recover for the deception.
This type of fraud happens more frequently than we ever want to think. The Canadian Broadcasting Company did a great report on this issue. Here is the link to the report:
https://www.georgiaconsumerlawyer.com/wp-contentwww.cbc.ca/marketplace/episodes/2009-episodes/the-secret-history-of-cars
Protect Yourself Carfax Report Fraud by a Car Dealer
You protect yourself from this by asking questions. Ask the dealer has the car ever been wrecked or damaged? Where did the car come from? Did your seller disclose any damage to you? Ask to see the auction invoice if it came from an auction. Ask to see the title to see if discloses any brands.
January 2, 2014 update
Today, when viewing this dealer’s web site, I located this car advertised there:
VIN #: 1HGCP2F64BA054755 Stock #: AA054755
They are showing this car as Carfax One Owner and No Known Accidents.
Autocheck shows:
| 11/09/2013 | GA | Auto Auction | AUCTION ANNOUNCED AS UNIBODY DAMAGE |
VIN #: WAULD64B23N002532 Stock #: AX002532 They are showing this car as
No Known Accidents
No Known Bodywork
Autocheck shows that it was announced at auction as:
|
If you believe you’re a victim of fraud by a car dealer, call our office today at [nap_phone id=”LOCAL-REGULAR-NUMBER-1″] or use our online form to request a free case evaluation.