The FBI hit a used car fraud ring recently in New Jersey nabbing 17 suspects in a $7.5 million dollar speedometer rollback scam.

After rolling back the mileage, the crooks then sold the vehicles to unsuspecting car dealerships and private individuals. This highly organized fraud ring would then alter the car titles to reflect the lower mileage.

The suspects would buy high mileage vehicles cheap, alter the mileage, recondition the vehicles so they appeared to be low mileage cars then sold them as clean, low mileage cars for a fat profit.

The ring was discovered when a Bloomfield car dealership detected 45 cars on his car lot with odometer tampering. For example, a Ford F-250 he purchased from this ring showed 51,000 miles on the odometer, but he found out after doing some investigating that the truck actually had 150,145 miles on it!

Authorities say buyers were scammed out of at least $7.5 million dollars. US Attorney, Christopher Christie said "This ring was highly organized and ran these cars through a production line like system, rolling back the odometers on thousands of vehicles."

What's the moral to this story? NEVER buy a used car without first getting a Free CARFAX Record Check. Odometer rollback fraud costs car buyers thousands. A Free CARFAX Record Check can identify potential odometer fraud before you purchase.

If the CARFAX Report for the used vehicle you buy misses any of these DMV-reported problems:

• Total Loss Acidents
• Mileage Problems
• Lemon History
• Fire or Flood Damage

Buy your next used car or truck with confidence...thanks to CARFAX's Buyback Guarantee.