(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Palos Park police are warning car shoppers to watch out for sellers who may have tampered with the odometer, after a resident was scammed last week.
The buyer paid $12,000 in cash to a person they met online for a 2008 Jeep that was listed as having 73,000 miles on it.
Police Chief Joe Miller said after driving it around for a little while, the buyer suspected that was wrong and came to police.
Working with the Secretary of State's police, Miller says they figured out the Jeep really had 232,000 miles on it.
Tampering with an odometer is illegal and police are looking for the vehicle's prior owner. In previous eras, odometers were cranked back manually; now, scam artists can reprgoram the digital number readouts.
Miller says the buyer only had a first name and an email address for the seller.
Miller suggests before buying a used car from another person, get a vehicle history report from an entity like Carfax or do a title search with the Secretary of State's office.
Also, you can have a trusted mechanic check out the car and during the test drive make sure the odometer is working.