Why would I want to check to see if my vehicle is stolen and leave a paper trail that proves I knew it was stolen? No thanks, I buy my cars incognito.
Check these Carfax type websites that promise vehicle stats. Most are scams. I sold a boat a while back and the first two inquiries I got were from guys wanting to me go to a website link they provided (different ones) and get a check run on my boat for damage maintenance, clean title, stolen etc...
I went and looked at them and both were listed as scam sites (10 out of 100 rating - 100 being best). I replied to the parties and sent them one I bought from an 18-year-old company with a 90 out of 100 rating. Both gave me the “I don’t trust sites I don’t know” spiel and said they would pay me back and pay my asking price for the boat if the report checked out. After I told them their site was a scam, one guy never contacted me back, the other tried to send me a “report” he got from his site. When I rejected buying one, he said, “you must not want to sell your boat”. I said not to you ass-—e. He didn’t respond.
One was VerifyYourDrive.com the other was CheckTheHin.com.
As of a few years ago there was no national database for stolen vehicles. You had to run it in every state.
Son bought an old truck and there was no vin plate on the door so I found the one on the frame which didn’t match the title. We took the numbers to PD and ran them in all surrounding states and nothing popped up bad. So it’s probably not stolen…
My boss in high school had a classic ‘Vette. ‘64 I think.
He’d owned it for about 6 years. Just before the statute of Limitations expired he tried to sell it. The prospective buyer checked the VIN plate and also a hidden VIN. The numbers didn’t match.
It turned out my boss had a hot car and didn’t know it.
The insurance company collected the car. The $10,000 he lost in 1981 is $35000 today. Ouch
Cousins husband bought one from a car dealer. They lived in a small town and he was told not to drive it out of the town they lived in because the police & sheriff knew the situation but other law enforcement like highway patrol would arrest him.