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Comment by pj_mukh | Hacker News Reader

Right, so it Feels like the employees of the Tow shop can make a lot more money by selling it to themselves (or family members, or however it can be laundered), but instead they traded that opportunity (scam) cost for a shorter DMV lineup. Doesn't seem sensible (as far as highly illegal scams go).

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The DMV employee had to sign off on the condition before a sale and I think that's the catch. If the tow employee lied and tried sell it to their family/friend then they could have been caught/fined by the DMV.

The scam works because the two company can quickly collect money from the DMV employee (no need to store the car on the lot for an extended period of time) and I'd guess with a premium they both agree on for all the hardships of the towing.

But why would a different DMV employee not sign off on the sale when they already go to the trouble to remove the wheels and doors and misrepresent cars as missing them?

For starters, it'd start to get suspicious if this was the 20th car that was missing doors and wheels this month. Someone in on the scam won't even make you take the doors off, they'll just happily file away that's what happened.

The tow company apparently has to submit pictures of the vehicle.

It says right there in the article, the DMV employee would go and pick the cars he wanted every so often. Which implies there were more cars that were under appraised and sold to other people, the DMV employee just picked some for himself every so often.

This payment was for looking the other way when the towing company would obviously try to under appraise a car.

The employees need the DMV, and also may not have the capital themselves

Not have less than $1500? The shell company could have employed them or purchased parts from them, or they could also be doing the same with their own shells and therefore often need to get to the head of a specific line and the DMV investigation probably wouldn't say much more than it has said, unless that was solid evidence of collusion by a DMV employee.

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