The New South Wales state government of Australia is warning residents shopping for used vehicles to be mindful of odometer tampering, after a four-fold increase in the number of fines issued for the offence. Fair Trading Minister Eleni Petinos said as used vehicle sales increased during COVID-19, so too had incidents of odometer fraud. “NSW Fair Trading Investigators dished out $112,200 (US$83,000) in fines and 76 penalty notices in 2021 and 2022—a huge jump from 22 total penalties in 2020,” she said in a release. Petinos described one case, where a perpetrator removed more than 400,000 kilometres (250,000 miles) off a 2012 Subaru XV then sold for $32,000 (US$24,000)—an $11,000 increase on the original sale price. In another example, a 2009 Toyota Hilux was resold for five times its sale price—$30,980 from $6,000—after the odometer reading was reduced by about 280,000 kilometres. “To intentionally rip off a fellow everyday Australian …