Recent midwest floods have once again raised the issue of "flood cars," or water-damaged vehicles offered for sale by unscrupulous sellers thousands of miles from the scene of the disaster.

A car sits submerged in the flood waters of Hurricane Isaac in the River Forest in LaPlace, Louisiana
A car sits submerged in the flood waters of Hurricane Isaac in the River Forest in LaPlace, Louisiana (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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Carol Kaplan of the National Insurance Crime Bureau says "flood cars" were a big problem after hurricane Sandy.

"A lot of people got soaked, so to speak," he said.

Kaplan said the bureau's estimate indicates between 7,000 and 10,000 cars were damaged by floods in the recent Texas and Oklahoma storms.  Sandy was even more damaging. There were more cars damaged than in the Houston floods.

"We recommend people take precautions to make sure that they are not buying a flood-damaged vehicle," Kaplan said.

Kaplan cautions that just because Texas is 1,500 miles away from Jersey, it doesn't mean some of those vehicles won't show up here.

"What some of these unscrupulous salvage dealers will do is that they will actually try to market the cars farther away from the scene of the damage because they think that people will be less suspicious," she said.

Kaplan advises prospective buyers to check the vehicle identification number on Carfax and the NCIB website.

"If you use both of those services, you be pretty assured that you are going to know whether that vehicle is flood-damaged," she said.

Consumers should also have the vehicle checked out by a reputable mechanic before handing over any money for a car, the NICB advises.

Christopher Basso, public pelations manager for Carfax says flood-damaged cars are in every state, with Texas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Lousiana topping the list.

Also check for mold in the car's interior or water damage under the hood of a used car and have a professional inspect it.

"Look at the carpeting in particular.  Lift up the carpeting to see if there is any evidence of mold. Does it look like any of the interior material has been replaced, in other words, is there material that doesn't match other parts of the car, which is evidence that it has been sort of, 'recovered' to make it look new," Kaplan said.

Also, look inside the engine, look for water marks. Check out the wires. Are they flexible, or are they brittle? Kaplan suggests that there is a variety of things that you can do. There is a lot of information on the NCIB website that will help you spot the signs of a flooded vehicle.

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