http://financialplan.about.com/od/fraudandfinancialscams/a/FloodedCars.htm

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/sep/22/beware_flooddamaged_vehicles/?business

http://www.komonews.com/katrina/story.asp?ID=39446

Good post. My Step Brother went looking for a new car and when they ran the VIN of the one he has now it came back as a salvage vehicle. They think it was a flood vehicle.

The place he got it from is giving him the run around and when he called the main NC DMV office to see what he could do they issued him a new title listing the car as Salvaged. Basically he went from a good title with a high trade in value to a salvaged title with possibly no trade in value.

He normally checks VIN's when he looks at used cars, but seeing as this one was on a lot (albeit a small hometown one) he figured he could trust them.

After his experince I will alway's check VIN's on a vehicle no matter where or who it comes from.