Odometer fraud is the illegal practice of rolling back odometers to make it appear that vehicles have lower mileage than they actually do. This has historically been considered a significant problem for the American consumer. This report consists of three components: (1) estimation of the incidence rate of odometer fraud and economic loss due to its inflation of the purchase price of passenger vehicles, (2) a survey of the states' efforts to combat odometer fraud, and (3) an assessment of the federal efforts to investigate and deter odometer fraud.
Abstract