You don’t hear much about odometer rollbacks these days, but it’s probably more common than most people realize.

As part of an investigation into the issue, NBC12 talked to CarFax’s Chris Basso who revealed that are approximately 1.6 million vehicles in the United States which have had their odometers rolled back. That’s a shocking number and Basso said it costs consumers million of dollars as buyers are typically willing to pay more for a vehicle with lower mileage.

Unfortunately, the process of rolling back an odometer is pretty simple with the help of an inexpensive device that connects to a vehicle’s computer. In less than 30 seconds, Basso and a technician demonstrated how a 2006 Chevrolet Silverado with 230,323 miles (370,669 km) could be reprogrammed to show 130,483 miles (209,992 km).

That’s a huge difference and one that could profitable to an unscrupulous seller. As Basso noted, the truck should be worth about $3,700 (£2,864 / €3,314) but, after being rolled back, it could fetch over $8,000 (£6,193 / €7,166). That’s more than a $4,000 (£3,096 / €3,583) profit for less than a minute’s worth of work.

According to CarFax data – which doesn’t list every state – odometer rollbacks are common in Texas as they found over 174,000 suspected cases. Other hot spots for the illegal activity include Florida (63,290), Georgia (60,368), Illinois (60,228) and Virginia (51,154). Of course, these aren’t the only states with large numbers of rollbacks as Arizona, Colorado and Michigan all had more than 30,000 incidents of suspected rollbacks.

CarFax estimates nearly 200,000 odometers are rolled back every year, but thankfully there are a few steps people can take to prevent becoming a victim. The company offers a free odometer fraud check which only requires users enter a vehicle identification number (VIN) and their e-mail address.  CarFax and competitors also offer more extensive reports for a small fee.

That’s a good place to start, but common sense also factors into the equation. If a car looks unusually rusty or beat up, but has low mileage, do some digging or just walk away.

H/T to Autoblog