Carfax says it flagged more than 20,000 suspected odometer rollbacks in Canada last year. Digital odometers may actually be easier to manipulate than many buyers realize. Hidden mileage is just one scam among VIN cloning, title washing, and undisclosed liens. Buying a used car can often feel a bit uncomfortable. It can be tough to prove how well (or not) a vehicle was cared for. Records might be incomplete or not exist at all. The seller might seem a bit strange all on their own. Sometimes it works out, though. Other times, the car in question ends up having lived a life much harder than its mileage might indicate. For 20,000 owners in Canada, the issue was that the indicated mileage was a lie. In a new report from Carfax, the company says it identified 20,642 vehicles with suspected odometer rollbacks through vehicle history reports ordered in 2025. That number only represents cars that were actually flagged, which means the real figure could be considerably higher. Digital Odometers Are Easier Targets An odometer rollback is exactly what it sounds like. Someone illegally reduces a vehicle’s mileage reading to make it appear newer and more valuable. For decades, this meant physically tampering with mechanical odometers. Now, though, the process can reportedly be much easier. According to the company and regulators, digital odometer manipulation tools have become more accessible, making the scam increasingly common. Read: The Odometer Reading On Millions Of Used Cars Is A Lie There’s a bigger issue, though. Unless you’re digging through service records or running a vehicle history report, you probably won’t spot it. And victims of odometer rollbacks aren’t just stuck with a vehicle that’s worth a lot less than the mileage might indicate. Unknown mileage can hide wear, it can delay maintenance, and put the owner in a situation where proper care of a car becomes an around-the-clock deal. Rollbacks Are Only Part of the Problem On top of that, it’s far from the only scam of its type. Carfax and the Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council also highlighted VIN cloning, title washing, hidden accident histories, and undisclosed liens. The lien statistic was particularly interesting as Carfax says 40 percent of lien checks revealed outstanding debt attached to a vehicle. That doesn’t automatically mean fraud, but it does create risk if a buyer unknowingly takes ownership before that debt is cleared. The good news is buyers aren’t completely defenseless. Free tools like NICB VINCheck can help identify stolen or salvage vehicles, while the NHTSA VIN Decoder lets shoppers verify whether a vehicle’s VIN actually matches what the seller claims is sitting in the driveway. Something as simple as Googling a VIN can also uncover old auction listings, prior damage photos, or mileage records. None of these tools provides a complete picture, and they’re no substitute for a mechanic’s inspection or a paid history report from Carfax or AutoCheck, but together they can expose the kinds of red flags scammers hope buyers never notice. Photos Stephen Rivers