Car auction scam
This car auction scam story is a little painful to tell and to remember. I was the mechanical reconditioning manager at one of the largest auction chains in the United States. One of my own trusted mechanics was rigging auction cars for a used car dealer that was paying him on the side. We are not sure how long this was going on but I can guess it was happening for months.
The mechanic claims that he was then approached by the dealer and was offered money to steer the dealer towards the best cars on sale day. This then grew into the car dealer talking the mechanic into creating special deals for him. The way it worked was the mechanic would build a problem into the vehicle well before the big sale day. The mechanic would disable the vehicle in many different clever ways to avoid detection.
Mechanic cheating car auction
The mechanic knowing how the system worked would make the car appear to have major drive train problems even though it did not. Let me give you some examples. We caught him draining out the hydraulic fluid on the clutch system of a manual transmission vehicle. This would stop the vehicle from going into gear and would cause the vehicle to appear to have a clutch or transmission problem. The vehicle would then be pushed through the sale and bought by his dealer buddy for pennies on the dollar. To complete the car auction scam the mechanic would then go to this dealers lot to fill and bleed the clutch system therefore restoring the vehicles full retail value.
We discovered this after he was caught on the first offense and the owner of a jaguar stated that his engine did not smoke until it was dropped off at the car auction. This vehicle was checked and diagnosed by the mechanic in question. We sent a fuel sample out and it was confirmed that just the right amount of oil was added to the fuel system to cause smoking but still let the engine run well. You can think of it as like a 2 stroke outboard motor that you mix oil in with the fuel, it smokes heavily at idle.
The car auction scam
This mechanic new exactly when to rig the cars. When the auction would receive heavy loads of vehicles this is when he would strike. The mechanics would be rushed to check the vehicles and have them ready for the next sale day. This would allow the shady mechanic to red light a few vehicles without suspicion. He would then supply the dealer with the run numbers of the vehicles so he would know which ones to bid on. To end the story the mechanic was not prosecuted in exchange for his information on how the scam worked. The auction manager thought it would be more valuable to know how this dealer could buy auction cars and influence mechanics to break the rules. The auto auction company makes plenty of money but loses more money then you would think. Many crooked dealers are willing to take big chances to buy auction cars cheep.
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Another trick he was using was to put 2-cycle oil mix in the fuel system. This would cause the vehicle to blow blue smoke and you could only assume that the engine was worn and burning oil. 
