Odometer Rollback

Category: legal

The illegal practice of tampering with a vehicle’s odometer to lower the recorded mileage and increase the resale value.

While digital odometers have made this harder, it remains a severe criminal offense. Sophisticated fraud involves swapping the instrument cluster or manipulating the data module. A vehicle history report discrepancy between service visits is the first warning sign of potential odometer fraud.

Common Examples

• The DMV flagged the vehicle title because the history report showed mileage decreasing between two successive maintenance service logs.
• If a used car shows significantly low mileage on the odometer but features heavily worn interior pedals, suspect potential odometer fraud and request an audit.