• Rise of Vehicle Title-Related Crimes – Vehicle title-related fraud is a serious issue in the state of Minnesota. According to the Minnesota’s Vehicle Crimes Unit, the impact on victims averages over 700,000 yearly.
• Odometer fraud is on the rise – Some fraud cases involve the act of misrepresenting how much the vehicle was used by illegally altering the vehicle’s mileage. It is estimated that over 2.14 million vehicles on the road today have rolled back odometers displaying less mileage than the car was actually driven.
• Auto theft is a massive problem- There were 16,743 vehicles reported stolen in the state of Minnesota in the year 2022 alone. Some of these stolen vehicles make their way to the used car market with false paperwork and altered Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN).
• Reveals Hidden Liens – Identifies any outstanding loans or financial claims that could transfer to the buyer.
• Dealer “curbstoning” – Curbstoning is a term often referring to a used car dealer posing as a private seller in order to sell a car without any of the legal protections and warranties the customer would have gotten had he purchased the car from a licensed dealer. Dishonest dealers often may engage in this practice to offload undesirable inventory that includes a history of total loss and branded/salvage titles as well as cars with a history of odometer fraud, title fraud and theft. These dealers most commonly do this without declaring these major issues to the buyer. 
• Title Washing to hide Salvage or Rebuilt Titles – Title washing is another form of title fraud, which involves the seller altering the vehicle’s title in order to hide title brands, which are permanently imprinted on the title. These catastrophic past events include major floods, fires, accident histories, lemon law buybacks and more.