Secretary Giannoulias is warning Illinoisans to exercise caution and employ best-practices when shopping for a used vehicle. This warning comes amid a rise in fraudulent vehicle purchases across the state.

The Secretary of State office has uncovered a growing number of fraudulent sales from out-of-state businesses licensed as wholesale dealers. These dealers are illegally falsifying the mileage shown on a used vehicle’s title and odometer to defraud car buyers.

For example, an Illinois car buyer thought they purchased a used vehicle from a wholesale dealer with 80,000 miles, only to find out the seller rolled back the odometer from over 200,000 miles and deliberately failed to disclose major mechanical problems with the car.