In Pakistan, fraud and alteration in Japanese auction sheets are more common than you think. In the EU, UK, USA, South Korea, and Canada, if someone dares to any auction sheet or meter alteration fraud, their law takes strict action against that type of fraud, probably five years of jail and a $10,000 fine.
However, Pakistani law is weak against this type of fraud. You never know if the car you’re buying has a mileage reversal or if the dealer or seller has altered the auction sheet. Please don’t trust any dealer or seller when purchasing a used car; they are not humans and can stoop to any level to commit fraud.
Here’re some types of fraud that faithless sellers and dealers do to innocent buyers. It’s all based on experiences:
Mileage Alteration Fraud
We did a random check on PakWheels Classified and found this fraudulent seller. Upon verifying the car’s auction sheet, we discovered that the original mileage on the vehicle’s meter is lower than mentioned in the original Japanese auction sheet. It’s clear that the seller has reversed the meter and probably if you call him, he’ll show you the fake altered verification sheet to cover his fraud.
Although our team has removed this advertisement, but we can’t keep a check on thousands of free ads on PakWheels Classified. This is just one example, millions of sellers and dealers do this type of fraud. They remove the ECU of the vehicle, connect it to a computer and reverse the mileage, that’s it! These type of people are faithless and doesn’t fall in the category of humans.
We are giving you a simple tip: If it’s an imported car, use PakWheels auction sheet verification. If the car is not auctioned, all you can do is trust your instinct. Do a proper detailed inspection of your car yourself, drive it, and then think if the mileage on the meter makes sense or not.
Fake Auction Sheet Fraud
Sellers and dealers also create fake auction sheets of the car. In these cases, they alter the original auction sheet with their own favorable figures, e.g., changing mileage, changing grades and notes mentioned by the officer. Although it’s 100% illegal to do that, Pakistani law doesn’t seem to focus much on this type of crime, hence giving a good boost to fraudsters to do this type of cheap crime.
Altering the auction sheet is not rocket science, either. If you know a bit of Photoshop, you can do that; even Canva can alter the auction sheet. Besides this, some AI sites let you do this crime in a matter of clicks!
The only way to save yourself from this fraud is to always obtain the auction sheet from your own sources, e.g., PakWheels auction sheet verification or any other sources you know that can source you the original sheet. Don’t trust any seller, no matter how honest or genuine they seem. Fraudsters often hide behind an innocent appearance.
Color Code Scam
Some sellers and dealers also commit paint fraud. It’s not technically a fraud, but if they sell you the locally repainted car, saying it’s genuine from Japan, then it’s not good and falls under the scam category. The process is technical but simple to confirm if the car’s pain has been changed or repainted locally.
On the auction sheet:
Always match these two things with the physical appearance of the car. If it’s changed, then your car has been repainted in Pakistan. If your car has been repainted with the same color code as in the sheet, use the paint detector tool, or you can use PakWheels inspection service to match the results with the auction sheet results. If the results are different, then the car has been repainted in Pakistan with the same color code.
