By Steven Symes 
A Florid man was just hit with 21 criminal charges after authorities accused him of washing car titles. What’s even more shocking is the same man was arrested in January and hit with 12 charges, also for washing car titles. But wait, there’s more.
The man, 40-year-old Ahmed Njie, is a used car salesman. In other words, his victims weren’t just buying vehicles from a random private party. If you thought you only had to worry about this kind of thing when not shopping at a dealership, think again.
According to a report from Fox13 Tampa Bay, authorities believe Njie is part of a large criminal organization that’s moving stolen cars, passing them off as legitimate and fooling shoppers.
Authorities have been investigating Njie for about a year. He’s now being held without a bond.
Title washing is when someone changes the VIN on a car, then getting the vehicle re-titled so it has a fresh title with that fraudulent VIN. Oftentimes, they’ll use a VIN from the same make, model, even paint color of a ride that’s been totaled and is no longer on the road.
With car theft rates still high, your chances of buying a stolen ride with a washed title is higher than most people would guess. When most people learn about this type of crime, they assume buying from a dealership will protect them. Sadly, it doesn’t always go that way.
While in this case we have a dealership employee who’s accused of washing titles, sometimes dealers are victims of these crimes. We’ve seen dealerships buy stolen cars, not detect the title is a forgery, then resell the vehicle to a customer, who month or years later learns the horrible truth.
One surefire way to guard against title washing scams is to check the VIN for a car on a location other than the dash or driver’s door jamb. Different vehicles have those VINs stamped or etched into different locations, like on the engine block or frame. Scammers can’t or won’t change those VINs because they’re harder to reach.
Image via Fox 13 Tampa Bay/YouTube