A search of a car's title history may uncover discrepancies. A vehicle history that shows a car or truck had higher mileage at an earlier date than the mileage disclosed when it was purchased means the odometer was almost certainly tampered with. Another way to detect odometer fraud is carefully inspecting the service records. The repair orders give the mileage at each repair attempt and that mileage should, of course, always increase. The odometer itself may display evidence of tampering, but be careful not to damage the device while inspecting it.
Most older cars have mechanical odometers with white numbers on a black background.
An odometer that has been rolled back will often have scratches on the white numbers or misaligned digits, or have fingerprints, smudges or scratches on the inside of the odometer window. Furthermore, expert mechanics can find evidence of odometer rollbacks in tire wear or the condition of the brake pedal covers. A wreck history can explain a car's mechanical defects and will cause the vehicle to be worth less than the consumer paid for the car. Often the result will be a car that is unsafe, because frame repairs don't return the car to the same structural integrity as when it was manufactured. Sometimes you can discover a wreck history with a title search.