autoMedia.com warns that used vehicles damages from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee on the Eastern Seaboard are now starting to flood the market according to the Insurance Information Institute.
“Unscrupulous salvage operators and dealers often try to conceal the fact that the vehicles they are selling have been damaged by a natural disaster,” says Jeanne M. Salvatore, senior vice-president of I.I.I. Though “it is not illegal to sell or buy a flood-damaged car... it is against the law to sell a water-damaged car without letting the buyer know....”
The article has an excellent guide on how to spot a flood-damaged vehicle. It also advises,
To help prevent such fraudulent resale of damaged cars to unsuspecting customers, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) has created VINCheck. This service gives consumers a free search of the car’s Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), including information on whether that vehicle has been declared as salvage by a participating insurance company.
