A man from Washington has gone viral on TikTok after he caught someone trying to scam him with a fake odometer reading. The user, who goes by @travv.ha on the platform, was looking at a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro SS in the Renton area when he realized something was wrong.
The car was being sold for $20,350 and showed 60,000 miles on the odometer. For a 2016 Camaro SS, this looked like a pretty good deal. These sports cars usually sell for much more money. But @travv.ha decided to do some checking before buying it.
“If you’re in Washington, don’t buy this Camaro from these guys. It’s rolled back 60K miles,” he said in his TikTok video. “Run the Carfax when you buy a car, guys.” His video warning other buyers has now been watched more than 450,600 times.
Turns out the car had way more miles
When @travv.ha looked into the car’s history, he found out the odometer had been changed. The car actually had 114,000 miles on it, not 54,000 miles like it showed. That’s a huge difference. He also ran a Carfax report and found out the Camaro had been in three accidents. With the real mileage and the accident history, the car was worth much less than what they were asking for.
This kind of scam happens a lot more than people think. Every year in the United States, about 450,000 cars with fake odometer readings get sold to buyers who don’t know better. This costs American car buyers more than $1 billion each year. Right now, there are over 2 million cars on the road that have been tampered with. That number has gone up 18 percent in just the last four years.
A lot of people think that newer cars with digital odometers can’t be messed with, but that’s not true. In fact, it’s gotten easier to change digital odometers. Sellers can buy small devices online for a few hundred dollars that can roll back the mileage in just seconds. These tools are supposed to be used by mechanics doing repairs, but dishonest sellers use them to cheat buyers.
When someone rolls back an odometer from 114,000 miles to 54,000 miles, they can add thousands of dollars to the car’s price. Buyers pay way too much for the car and then have to deal with unexpected repair costs because the car is actually much older and more worn out than they thought. This is a federal crime. People who get caught doing this can go to prison for up to three years and pay fines of up to $10,000 for each car they tampered with.
There are ways to protect yourself when buying a used car. You should always get a vehicle history report from Carfax or AutoCheck. These reports show all the odometer readings from different times in the car’s life. If the numbers don’t match up, you’ll know something is wrong. You should also look at the car carefully. If the seats, pedals, or steering wheel look really worn out but the odometer shows low miles, that’s a red flag. Getting a pre purchase inspection from a trusted mechanic is always a good idea before you hand over any money.
