“The almost perfect crime?” - CARFAX warns about fraud with vehicle histories
(MUNICH, May 20, 2025) - In the context of AutosBuzz 2025, the leading conference for automotive e-commerce and online marketplaces, vehicle history specialist CARFAX has uncovered a scam within the industry that is defrauding millions of users across Europe and around the world.
“When I founded CARFAX in Europe, my aim was to use vehicle histories to ensure transparency and fairness on the used car market. Unfortunately, we have discovered that this aim is being abused with the help of the Internet and people are being defrauded,” explains CARFAX Europe Managing Director and founder Frank Brüggink.
The scam only causes minor damage to the individual used car seller, but it quickly becomes lucrative for the fraudsters on a large scale. And this is how the scam works:
On online marketplaces, (mainly private) used car sellers are contacted by supposedly interested parties. They state that they would like to buy the vehicle for the asking price without negotiation, but only if the seller provides them with a used car history. In return, the supposed prospective buyer sends a link to a specific provider, stating that only the vehicle owner is allowed to buy this report. On the supposedly reputable website, the car sellers then buy a vehicle history for 20 to 60 EUR in the hope of being able to sell the car quickly at a good price - without ever receiving a vehicle history or a kind of dummy, with false or very rudimentary data. The alleged prospective buyer then disappears without any further contact.
“Fraudsters are currently particularly active in Italy, but also in Germany and other European countries as well as in North America and Australia. It's a scam on a global scale,” explains Johannes Loose, Head of Marketing at CARFAX and ‘discoverer’ of the latest activities involving this scam. “The fraudsters create supposedly legitimate-looking websites non-stop. A website is usually shut down after 3-4 weeks of use and then goes live again under a new domain,” Loose continues.
This is a lucrative business for the fraudsters, says Johannes Loose: “Very few people bring 20 to 60 euros to the police, and with the help of automated tools, millions of users can be contacted without much effort. This never-ending ‚supply‘ of potential victims quickly results in a high sum in the millions, without the fraudsters currently having to reckon with prosecution. In my opinion, this is an almost perfect crime.“
The fraudsters' tracks lead to Eastern Europe, mainly Romania and Bulgaria, but there are also indications that they originate from Lithuania and even Pakistan. “We are already in contact with law enforcement authorities and the operators of the online marketplaces, but we also know that the pressure on the fraudsters is not yet high enough. We believe that the necessary transparency and knowledge should also exist here on the seller side,” says Frank Brüggink, ‘but also with the online marketplaces, which certainly want to generate high-quality leads’. People should be able to move safely on the used car market without fear of losing money, being treated unfairly or getting a bad deal,” concludes Brüggink.
Jason Byrnes, Associate Director Business Development at CARFAX, talked about how fraud in the used car market can be prevented in his presentation “Unmasking Vehicle History Fraud: Safeguarding Trust in Automotive Marketplaces” at AutosBuzz 2025 in Berlin on May 20th.
Editor’s note: A CARFAX representative is available for interviews.