Major car smuggling ring dismantled

9 people have been arrested by the gendarmerie in Vendée in connection with a major fraud. They are alleged to have tampered with the odometers of several vehicles, resulting in a total of 146 victims.

The odometer scam

The network had a very specific modus operandi. First of all, these crooks only bought cars that had been driven a lot but were still in good condition. As soon as the cars were in their possession, they proceeded to tamper with the odometer, which could be done in a number of ways. Any necessary repairs were also carried out. The aim was simple: to give these cars a new lease of life.

Once all the modifications had been made, these crooks put the cars up for sale on classified ad sites where they could deal with private individuals such as Leboncoin. They also pretended to be private individuals.

Over €600,000 scammed

On these classified ad sites, their technique was simple. Pass themselves off as very honest people offering you a good deal. To do this, these scammers offered their cars, which appeared to be in very good condition, at rock-bottom prices. The idea was to attract as many people as possible and sell quickly.

It's a system that worked, as they managed to scam 146 people. The total turnover was in excess of €600,000. Following the opening of the investigation, the gendarmes have already been able to seize 17 vehicles from the man suspected of heading up this network of criminals. Investigators have also seized large sums of money: €22,000 in cash and three bank accounts. The mother and brother of the ring leader were also implicated.

Some of the cars seized by the gendarmerie

Carry out transactions between private individuals with Obvy

Unfortunately, used car scams are very common on private transaction sites such as Leboncoin and La Centrale. Every year, at least 10% of second-hand vehicles sold between private individuals in France display a doctored odometer. This is a very dangerous scam, because the buyer of the vehicle does not carry out the necessary repairs in time, which can cause accidents on the road.

To protect yourself, always analyse a vehicle's service history. And make sure you use a secure payment method such as Obvy. Our solution, designed to counter scams between private individuals, gives you full traceability of the transaction and checks for you the identity of the person you are dealing with. In the event of a scam, our teams are there to help you.