Anyone ever heard of anything like this?

[TNT]

So back in 2012 my mom bought herself a 2007 Ram 1500. A couple of days ago she wasn't able to start it. So I went over to check out why. The battery was fine, fuses looked good, everything electrical worked. Since I wasn't going to have time to pull the starter soon enough to suit her, she decided to take it to a mechanic.
Turns out that was a good idea. Her mechanic found some module I've never even heard of. It seems that the original owner might not have had good credit. So the dealership or bank installed something that would enable them to remotely disable the truck from starting. Just in case he missed payments. 10 years later, the wiring on that module is now coming loose. So the module decided that loose wire= someone tampering with it, and disabled the starter. So the mechanic either reconnected the wires or bypassed the stupid thing, truck starts every time now.
Thank god I was busy. Because I would've been pissed if I had replaced the starter only to have it still not work.

[KevinK]

Well they make them for DUI offenders. I guess dead beats would be next.

[TNT]

The dui one I'd heard of. But this was a new one on me. Especially since, I'm guessing, it would have to be activated by radio or cell phone signal. If they had to send someone to the guy's house to trigger it, might as well send the repo man.

[vintageracer]

Done all the time by "Note Car Lot's" with tracking and a disable function. Whole industry built around this technology.

[brianj]

The old LoJack systems worked this way as well.

[teddy1500]

buy here, pay here lots have been doing it for years, even stashing gps in the car, makes it easier to repo.

[stangPlus2Birds]

That's often done for many "no money down" or the "low monthly payment" used car deals.
There's a very high rate of defaults on those kinds of loans. Btw, almost always, those loans are a massive rip-off.

There may also be a hidden GPS in the vehicle. But, the loan company would've cancelled that account as soon as they sold the car. They don't want to pay the monthly/yearly fee.

[TNT]

Well mom's deal definitely didn't fit this.
She bought it off a VW dealership, her credit is over 700, and she financed through her credit union (which she's done business with for 30 years). She also paid it off a couple of years ago, long before this issue occurred.

It's definitely left there from the previous owner.
Now I'm wondering how many people owned it before she bought it in Feb 2012. It doesn't sound like Dodge would've done this to a brand new car from their lot, based on what you guys are saying.