The authorities confiscated the stolen vehicle, leaving Nick without his $75,000 investment.
In Arizona, Nick, a car buyer, was ensnared by a scam when he purchased a stolen vehicle, a Ford Bronco Raptor, taken from a factory lot in Detroit.
According to an article published by KCRG, in Arizona, a car buyer named Nick fell victim to a scam when he purchased a stolen vehicle, a Ford Bronco Raptor, that had been stolen from a factory lot in Detroit.
Despite all the paperwork seeming legitimate and the stolen vehicle appearing to have come from Alaska with proper documentation, Nick unknowingly bought one of several stolen vehicles.
He found the listing for the stolen vehicle on Craigslist and paid $75,000 for the stolen car after performing a Carfax check and verifying the title at a third-party motor vehicle division location in Phoenix.
The scammers had manipulated the stolen vehicle’s vehicle identification number (VIN) and replaced it with a different one, which surprisingly didn’t raise any suspicions in the state’s auto title computer system.
A few weeks later, when Nick traded the Bronco stolen vehicle for a different truck at a dealership, a sharp-eyed employee noticed the VIN discrepancy of the stolen vehicle and alerted the police.
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The authorities seized the Bronco stolen vehicle, leaving Nick out of his $75,000 investment in the stolen vehicle.
According to an article published by KGNS, regrettably, Nick wasn’t the only victim. Other unsuspecting buyers in states like Arizona, New Mexico, and Tennessee were also targeted with stolen vehicles.
In a separate incident, Canton, Michigan police had apprehended seven individuals connected to the theft of stolen vehicles, specifically Broncos, from the Ford lot.
The incident has highlighted a gap in oversight, as the Arizona Auditor General’s Office criticized the state’s supervision of third-party motor vehicle division offices.
The Phoenix police are actively investigating the matter, aiming to bring the scammers to justice and prevent further occurrences of such fraudulent activities.