At a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, says that a legislative fix may be necessary to keep shiny wrecks with phony titles from being sold to gullible car buyers. Title fraud occurs by altering or duplicating the title of a flood-damaged or totaled car to give it a clean title history. The scale of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita highlighted the title fraud problem, with some estimating that more than 600,000 vehicles may have been damaged.