Dealer Trick: Changing the Paperwork

Changing the paperwork is an auto dealer fraud and is very troubling because in this car fraud the dealership is actually modifying legal documents. What happens is the dealership changes the original contracts signed by their customers and then mails the signed contracts out two to three weeks later.

There is also another type of this fraud when the buyers would sign blank contracts and afterwards the dealership would go back in and change the documentation by changing pricing or amounts on extras purchased. Later the buyers receive the paperwork and find out that prices in fact exceed the ones they agreed upon.

In this case dealerships would often use the buyers financing to work against them by raising the actual price of the car, but keeping the monthly payments the same by stretching the payments out over a longer extent of time. Car buyers should be really careful with this scam as contracts often include a lot of small print. Most consumers don’t take the time to read it, but the small print does matter and binds you legally. Buyers should ask questions about anything they don’t understand on the contract.