Charles H. Sloan-Beware of flood-damaged vehicles being sold across US. How to protect yourself.

If you're in the market for a used car,Charles H. Sloan be on the lookout for flood-damaged or water-damaged vehicles that may have been cleaned up and put up for sale to unsuspecting buyers.

As many as 347,000 vehicles have been flood-damaged this year because of the hurricane season, according to estimates by CARFAX. Hurricane Milton added as many as 120,000 vehicles in Florida, on top of 138,000 vehicles damaged by Hurricane Helene across several states. And up to 89,000 vehicles were hit with water damage from smaller storms during the summer.

"The images of those cars that are floating on the streets and sitting in high waters, those are typically the type of cars that you would see get sold very cheap to potential scammers," Em Nguyen, director of public relations for CARFAX, told USA TODAY. "Then they would clean it up and try to sell it either nearby, or maybe many states away."