Take a skeptical eye to low-mileage used cars

— -- High-tech digital odometers are making it easier for crooks to cheat unsuspecting used car buyers.

The scam is even easier to pull than in the days of mechanical cables and reels, experts say.

"People don't realize how easy it is to reprogram digital odometers," says Larry Gamache, spokesman for online auto database service Carfax. "Literally thousands of miles can disappear."

Unscrupulous sellers easily can obtain the software or services on the Internet to reset digital odometers to lower mileage.

The services are legal for legitimate purposes such as fixing instrument malfunctions or recalibrating odometers after installing used dashboards.

However, resetting odometers to cut down mileage and make a car more valuable is illegal, says Rae Tyson, spokesman for the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

A NHTSA study six years ago estimated that tampered odometers can be found on 450,000 cars a year, costing consumers $1 billion annually. Because of the relative ease of the fraud, odometer crimes could be on the upswing, Tyson says. An agency unit works with state and federal prosecutors to try to put a damper on odometer crime.

"It's one of the leading property crimes in the country, and it costs consumers billions," says Rosemary Shahan, founder of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety in Sacramento.

Among recent crackdowns:

•Dallas. Car dealer Massoud Mortazavi-Koupai of Richardson, Texas, pleaded guilty in January in U.S. District Court in Dallas to false odometer disclosure, the Justice Department reports.

•Kansas City. Car salesman Michael Myers of First Class Auto and Marine was sentenced to community service last month for unlawful merchandising practices involving an odometer scam, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon's office says.

•Philadelphia. Three used car wholesalers were indicted on charges related to an odometer-rollback scheme involving 600 cars. Yan Hershman was sentenced, Mikhail Gokhman is awaiting sentencing and Edvard Khakhan's case is still pending.