How To Run A VIN History

How to Run a VIN on a Vehicle
So, how do you run a VIN on a vehicle? How do you perform a VIN check on a car you’re looking to buy, maybe one you purchased, and you’re trying to get a title for?

Misconceptions About Online VIN Checks
Now, one of the misconceptions is that you can do this online. You’ll see things like Carfax or VIN Check or all these VIN lookups online that you can pay $10 or $15 and get a VIN report. The problem with that is it’s going to be about 40% accurate, and if you’re looking to get 100% guarantee to make sure that there are no liens on a vehicle, that it’s not stolen, that it’s not a parts-only vehicle, that there’s no title limitations like export only or salvage or other types of records, there’s only one method to get it 100%. And in most cases, it doesn’t cost any money; it just takes some time.

The Inconvenience of Accurate Information
The sad part is it’s not going to be as convenient as just pushing a button on your computer and waiting for it to pop up on your screen. But the reason that convenience is there is because they don’t look for everything. In fact, if you look at the disclaimers on Carfax and other websites, it’ll tell you this isn’t 100% accurate and may be missing things. For example, CARFAX is not allowed by law to access all the lien information in all 50 states. Lien information is protected under federal law and legally cannot even be released to third parties unless it’s done in person.

The Three-Step Process to Run a Valid VIN Check
So, how do you run a valid VIN check? Well, let’s take a look at the three-step process that anybody can do. You don’t have to be licensed, you don’t have to have any kind of certification, you don’t have to have any kind of authority or logins—anybody can do this for free. Some states might charge you five bucks to get some of the records.

Step One: Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)
You have to do three checks of information. Number one is you have to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles in person in the state where you’re located. So if you’re in, let’s say, Florida, you go to the DMV, any local office. Some states call their office a different thing; some states call it Secretary of State, like here in Illinois, and some states call it Department of Transportation, like in Pennsylvania. And you’re going to request a VIN history. Now, they’re going to make you sign a form. You can see on the screen an example of that form—it’s an information request form.

Legal Requirements and Inconveniences
Why do you have to go in person? Why do you have to sign a form? Well, here’s why: There is a federal law called the DPPA, and you can look it up, USC 2725. That makes it a statute prohibiting the disclosure of personal information without permission of the person or acceptable uses, and you have to be an authorized recipient. Well, to be an authorized recipient, they have to know who you are—you have to be there in person in front of them. They’re going to make you sign this form, and you’re going to have to certify that you’re not going to use it for any prohibited uses like stalking, identity theft, fraud—you’re using it to verify information, and that’s one of the permissible uses that allow you to get this detail.

What You’ll Learn at the DMV
Now, I know it sounds inconvenient—you have to go to DMV; nobody likes to go there—but if you want 100% accurate information, it’s the only way to get it. Now, here’s the thing: They’re only going to be able to tell you about liens and prior owners. They’re not going to be able to tell you about salvage or even about stolen vehicles because stolen vehicles’ information is kept in a separate record system with law enforcement under the NCIC (National Crime Information Computer).

Step Two: Local Law Enforcement
Here’s the thing: Some states at the DMV will log into the National Crime Information Center and get stolen car information occasionally. They may not do it every single day; they may do it once a month, once a quarter, or twice a year. So, you run the risk if you just rely on the DMV under this information request that you might not get stolen information.

The Risk of Relying on the DMV Alone
We get over a thousand phone calls a day in our office. Very often, we get calls from people who say, “Hey, I ran a VIN check; I even went to the DMV. I found out later my car was stolen because the DMV doesn’t have stolen information.” How do you get stolen car information? Well, what you do is now you leave the DMV, and you go to a local law enforcement office—Police Department, Sheriff’s Office, State Patrol, anybody with a badge and a gun. Same thing—you have to go in person with your photo ID and tell them the VIN number. They will look it up.

The Importance of Going In Person to Law Enforcement
The reason you have to go in person to the police department is that if the car does come back stolen, they want to know who you are so they can find out where the car is. They don’t do it by phone because if you call them up and say, “Hey, is this car stolen, VIN number 1234,” if it is stolen, they say, “Yeah, it’s stolen,” you can just hang up, and now they don’t know who you are or where the car is. They don’t want that—you have to go in person. They may also make you sign a form.

Get It in Writing
Now, here’s an important thing: If you go to the DMV or the Police Department, whatever they tell you, get it in writing—get a printout. Because you don’t want to go back later and they say, “Oh no, there is something on this car,” and you can’t say, “Well, Joe Schmo told me two months ago that it was clear.” You want to get it in writing because sometimes they may have wrong information verbally.

Step Three: National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS)
The last thing you need to do is check with the NMVTIS (National Motor Vehicle Title Information System). This system has information about flood cars, salvage cars, parts-only cars, and export-only cars.

Why NMVTIS Is Important
Now, you might think, “Well, gee, can’t I get that from the DMV?” Not always. The DMV doesn’t always have the information. Again, we get thousands of calls a day. Many, many times people say, “I got a title from the DMV; they gave it to me—everything was good, right?” And then I found out later it was a junk VIN number—the VIN number had a salvage on it. Sometimes the DMV doesn’t always check in advance when they issue a title. People want a rush title—they want it on the spot—and the DMV gives it to you. And then later, if they find out there’s something wrong with it, they revoke it.

Why You Should Check All Three Sources
So, you want to check the NMVTIS. If you go to their website, you can find out if they have a local branch you can go to. Sometimes they’ll give you a login where you can get it through their database. You want to check all three. If you don’t check all three, you run the risk of buying a car with a bad history or even not getting a title for a vehicle because of something or needing some requirement like an inspection. You want to know this information before you move forward.

The Danger of Taking the Easy Way Out
Don’t try to take the easy way out. If you run a Carfax or a VIN check or any of these websites, you’re going to spend $10 or $15. It might seem like it’s easier than having to go someplace in person, get in a car, and drive down to the DMV, but you might save an hour’s worth of time, but you might get bad info. These Carfax-type reports are very misleading—very misleading about what they have—and you don’t want to be risking thousands of dollars on a vehicle on something that maybe you saved a little bit of time but found out later that the vehicle has a problem that wasn’t disclosed online.

Visit Our YouTube Channel for more insights and discussions on various topics. Consider subscribing to our YouTube channel. Click here!

The Real Story On Abandoned Vehicle Titles

Inquiry about Titles for Abandoned Vehicles
One of the most common questions that our sales staff gets on phone calls has to do with people inquiring about how to get a title for an abandoned vehicle. I have an abandoned vehicle I need to get a title for. Now many of these calls the vehicle is really not abandoned. It’s something that they bought on Craigslist or Facebook and they’re just thinking that if they call it abandoned they can get a title for it.

Definition of Abandoned Vehicles
It’s very important to understand what the word abandoned means. An abandoned vehicle is a vehicle that literally has been abandoned and has been not claimed and discarded by the owner. The problem with that is in most states that does not allow the person who finds it to keep it. It’s not like Finders Keepers.

Oregon State Law on Abandoned Vehicles
We’re going to take a look at a particular set of laws. This happens to be from the state of Oregon, but most states have exactly the same law, so it’s very important to look at the wording of how abandon works. Be aware that even though an abandoned vehicle is not a way to get a title, there are many other great ways to get a title. But first, we’re going to look at abandon to see what it means for your scenario. So let’s dive in deep and look in detail at how this works.

Packet Information on Abandoned Vehicles
So this is the packet. It says right here the packet contains information about some situations where ownership of a vehicle may be transferable through a possessory lien. Separate from that, a separate bullet point says information on abandoned vehicles. So let’s jump down to the abandoned vehicle part first and then we’ll look at the other parts second.

Legal Interest in Abandoned Vehicles
Here is very specific language: titling a previously abandoned vehicle. To obtain a title, a person must have acquired a legal interest in the vehicle. In most cases, people do this through some sort of purchase or financial agreement like you bought it from a dealership and they gave you a contract, or you need to go through some form of legal process. It says right here legal process, and you see on our website, court order title is a legal process that you can use to get a title for an abandoned vehicle.

Process for Abandoned Vehicles on Private Property
Key sentence right here: if you don’t see anything else, one cannot simply attain title because the vehicle was left on one’s property. That right there tells you all you need to know. You can’t simply just magically say I want a title because it was left on my property. You have to go through some form of legal process that’s outside the scope of the DMV and has to go through some other legal authority. We’ll talk about that, but that’s a good starting point to know what you can and can’t do.

Disposal of Abandoned Vehicles by Authorities
So here are the provisions for disposal of abandoned vehicles. For vehicles abandoned on highway public or private property, the law allows for an appropriate authority to remove the vehicle. Authority meaning state, county, or city, so the government removes the vehicle. So that means if you call it abandoned, you have to call the government and tell them to come get it, and they auction it off.

Towing Abandoned Vehicles from Private Property
You can also, if a person is the owner of a private property on which a vehicle has been abandoned, you may have a tower tow the vehicle. First, you have to put a note on the vehicle saying if it’s not removed within 72 hours, the vehicle may be removed. Then you have to fill out a form that has the description of the vehicle, location of the property, and you have to submit that to the DMV. Also, the DMV does not provide you with a form. The information needed can be written on a piece of paper. Right, so they don’t give you any blank forms for this.

After the Vehicle is Towed
So what happens after it’s towed away? Well, after it’s towed away, in cases of abandoned vehicles, the DMV must receive satisfactory evidence of the facts applying for the title for an abandoned vehicle sold by an authority. Remember where we talked about the authority will come get the vehicle: state, county, or city.

Applying for a Title
The purchaser of that from the auction may apply for a title, and the bill of sale must describe the vehicle, identify the statutes under which the sale was held. So you can’t just get a bill of sale from the police and say, “Hey, I bought it, I want a title.” They have to describe under what legal authority that was done. Then to apply for a title, the purchaser must submit an application for title and a certificate of possessory lien forms, the one that covers your situation. Sounds kind of complicated, fully completed, signed by the authorized representative of the business claiming the lien.

Importance of Proper Documentation
Application will be rejected if you submit one more than one form certifying foreclosure. So this is not a simple matter. You also need to keep records: signed copy of the original tow notification, repair order signed and dated copy of the claim of lien signed, and copy of the DMV certificate of possessory lien.

Misconceptions and Legal Requirements
Remember this doesn’t apply just for any old abandoned vehicle. You have to jump through a bunch of hoops. Here’s some questions that a lot of people ask that the DMV has taken upon themselves to put on this form. Am I required to contact the vehicle owner of the vehicle I’m getting a title for? Depends on the type of lien that’s being foreclosed. If you’re not sure, you may want to get legal advice from an attorney. That’s how complicated it is.

Legal Obligations and Penalties
You have to follow all the rules. You have to state under penalty of perjury, “I foreclose the lien in accordance with provisions of ORS 8712 and ORS 176, etc.” If you notice, it says buyer’s name and date of auction required. You can’t just assign it to anybody you want. You have to hold it out for people to bid on it so that the proper amount of money is obtained for the vehicle.

Possessory Lien Process
Remember this possessory lien is the result of an abandoned vehicle being removed from private property at the request of the owner. It’s not just the owner does this, it’s the towing company or the state does this. In addition, the seller, if you’re not a manufacturer, licensed dealer, or registered tower, you have to get a surety bond of $220,000 in order to file with the DMV for this auction. So it’s not just an automatic thing.

Compliance and Penalties
You also have to abide by all the rules. It’s a Class A misdemeanor to misrepresent anything, punishable by jail up to a year or a $6,000 fine. On the last page, it reminds you that foreclosure of a lien is a result of a vehicle being towed at the request of an authority: state police, sheriff, department of transportation. It talks about that it has to be done under a regulatory authority.

Alternative Processes for Obtaining Titles
So the short answer is, if you call something abandoned, it triggers a whole set of requirements. If you go through another process like a court order title or a bonded title, it’s much simpler. You don’t want to automatically claim abandoned unless literally the car dropped out of nowhere and you don’t know where it came from. Then maybe it might be abandoned, but it also limits your chances of becoming the owner of the vehicle.

Visit Our YouTube Channel for more insights and discussions on various topics. Consider subscribing to our YouTube channel. Click here!

Dealers Finally Getting Ready For Electronic Car Titles

Electronic Vehicle Titles
Well, it’s finally really happening. Electronic vehicle titles are almost here. We’ve been working in collaboration with many vendors, including DocuSign, CarMax, and many other major automotive professions, to get electronic titles working. And now, dealers are starting to get ready for this. Many of our dealer clients are looking forward to this tremendously because dealing with papers and documents and, you know, having to have paper titles all over the place is a pain in the neck for a dealership that might process hundreds of vehicles a month. So having these electronic titles is going to really be a load off the shoulders. And even if you’re a consumer, it’s going to eliminate a lot of paperwork.

Benefits of Electronic Titles
We have a package of paperwork that, you know, has a folder with two sides on it. This is going to eliminate a lot of bureaucracy and red tape for you as a consumer to have an electronic title.

Implementation Timeline and Resources
So, depending on what state you’re in, it may be a while—maybe a few months, maybe a few years—and it may only start with dealers and then auctions and then lenders and then filter down to consumer civilians. But finally, it’s here. Our collaboration with ESTART—you can find out on our website, cartitles.com—is our website. We have information about ESTART, which is the vehicle title electronic conversion collaboration that we’ve been working on for over a year now. It’s finally getting to the point that electronic titles are a reality.

Visit Our YouTube Channel for more insights and discussions on various topics. Consider subscribing to our YouTube channel. Click here!

Classic Car Sales Scams – Advanced New Fraud

So there’s a new type of fraud. Well, it’s not brand new but it’s rolling out quite a bit more than it used to be with classic car sales—fake classic car sales.

How Scammers Operate
Here’s what the scammers will do: they will find the name and address of a used car dealership and they will create a website that’s very similar in name. Let’s say it’s called Joe’s cars. They will make a website that is Joe’s used cars inc.com and they’ll get the logo and the picture of the building from Google Earth. They’ll get photos of vehicles that they scrape from different websites and they’ll make a very nice-looking used car classic car for sale website.

The Appeal of Classic Cars
Because classic cars many times are not bought locally, look if you’re selling a 2022 Toyota Corolla you don’t need to go halfway across the country to get that car because you can find one near where you live. But if you want a 1969 Z28 Camaro, you’re going to have to probably take whatever you can get wherever it is in the country. The chances of one of those cars being right next to your house are slim. So people buy them remote. They may want to go look at them but a lot of times you have to send a deposit in advance or take pictures or take videos.

Creating a Fake Website
So what these scammers will do is they’ll make a fake website of a car dealership. They make it look legit. They put the address of a real car dealership so if you Google the address, yep, there’s the car dealership. They’ll put a phone number that rings to them and they’ll get pictures, not necessarily from the car dealership that they’re cloning, that they’re making you know, identity theft, but they’ll find great cars online elsewhere and they’ll take the pictures. No Photoshop, maybe the logo of this fake car dealership on the front license plate, maybe on the sign in the background. They’ll put the fake car dealership name and they’ll put really slick good-looking photos and even videos that they scrape from the internet on the website.

Engaging with the Victim
They take the call and they say, “Yep, this is Joe at Joe’s used cars. Do you want to buy this car?” Yep, and they’ll go back and forth with you. They’ll send you pictures. You can ask them to send a new picture; they’ll send you an updated photo. Eventually, you’ll say, “I want to buy it,” and they’ll say, “Well great, do you want to come see it?” “Well, I’m not really local.” “Okay, well if you send a deposit, we’ll hold it and we’ll either ship it to you or you can send an inspector.” They’ll take a deposit and of course, it’s a scam, right?

Preventing the Scam
So how do you prevent this from happening? The first thing you do is anytime you are going to buy anything or send money remote, make sure you can positively identify the company you’re doing business with. Also, look up their website to see when it was formed. You can do a WHOIS lookup on a domain name, which is a web address. Joe’s cars.com, you can plug it into a website called WHOIS, it’ll tell you what date it was formed. Most of these were formed within the last four or five months because they can’t keep running this scam for too long because they’ll get bad reviews. So if you see the website was formed recently, that’s a red flag.

Verifying Business Details
Then what you do is go onto Google Maps, look up that business, click on it on Google Maps, and look at the actual phone number. Because you can’t fake a phone number on Google Maps because they make you identify the business and call that number and say, “Hey, do you have this car for sale?” If it’s the real place, then you call the real number.

Requesting Proof
The third thing you do to make sure you’re not getting scammed is have the person send you a video of them walking on the lot of that place with a date and then show the car. Because a lot of times the videos they have are videos that were put on the internet months or years ago. Make sure it’s dated, make sure it shows the lot from Google Maps, not another showroom location, and make sure the one you can see on Google Maps.

Inspecting the Title
The last thing you do is ask them to send you a photo of the title of the vehicle. Because if they have the vehicle, they should have the title. If they don’t have the title, that’s a red flag. Or look at the title to see if it’s photoshopped. A lot of times they’ll take in they’ll Photoshop the words on it, the name of their dealership. Remember, the dealership’s name is probably not on the front of the title. So if they send you a title and on the front of the title, on their certificate side, right, this side, if the name of the dealership is listed as the owner, that’s probably a red flag. You might think that’s legit. Dealerships never put a new title in their name. Their name is signed over on the back from the seller and then they sign it over to you.

Contacting DMV
So if they send you one with their name printed on the front, that’s also a red flag. The last thing you can do to verify the title is you can contact the Department of Motor Vehicles in the state where that title was issued from and ask them. They won’t tell you the name because that’s privacy laws, but they can tell you if there’s actually a title issued from that state and they can tell you the title number and it should match what the scammer sent you.

Be Cautious
Be very careful because these scammers are taking tens of thousands of dollars from victims for deposits on vehicles that they don’t even have and they’ll bluff you and say, “Yeah, you can come look at it,” because they know you’re far away and you probably won’t.

Additional Precautions
Worst case scenario, if it’s a lot of money, you could go on Craigslist and find a local inspector that can go down and look at the vehicle. They may not be a car inspector but at least they can go put their hands on it, put their eyes on it, take a picture of it as a third party. It might cost you 50, 100 bucks to have somebody local go to a dealership and see the car but that will also keep you from getting scammed in that way. It still could be a scam; it still could be that dealership selling a bad car, but at least you’re not sending money, wiring it to somebody outside the country that made up a fake car dealership website to steal your hard-earned money.

Visit Our YouTube Channel for more insights and discussions on various topics. Consider subscribing to our YouTube channel. Click here!

What Do You Get With A Car Title Service

So you have ordered the car titles document package. What do you get? When does it come? Well, here’s what happens once you place the order.

Document Preparation
We immediately start preparing documents for your car title process. They’re usually done within a few hours, almost always the same day, and you’ll get an email that will confirm all the spellings and the VIN number to make sure everything’s correct after we printed it out to make sure it’s ready to go. Once you verify everything’s right, then we send you out this package.

Package Contents and Signing
It’s a full portfolio of all your documents, all the different places they need to be signed. Some states allow for digital signatures; if that’s the case, we don’t need to send you any package, you can sign it online. Normally, most states are still in the paper era, and if that’s the case, we send you this package with all the signatures identified: where to sign it, where to put your name, where to put your address.

Instructions and Convenience
Once it’s signed, we’ll give you an envelope exactly where to send it back to for filing. Also, for convenience, there’s a full instruction sheet. Everything’s filled in; you don’t have to normally fill in really anything. There’s also a QR code to make it easier for instructions. It’ll have little arrow stickers.

Document Processing
Once it gets sent back, either to us or to whoever it needs to get sent to for processing, it’ll have direct access for you to get your title. Once all the documents have been reviewed, the title is sent directly to you with your name on it. It’s not in anybody else’s name, it doesn’t come to us, it comes directly to you. But that’s an example of your car title packaging that comes to you.

Shipping Information
We sent it USPS Priority Mail with tracking. It’s two-day shipping, so you’ll have it very quickly. Again, in states where they allow for digital signatures, all this is done electronically. Most states are still on paper.

Future of Electronic Titles
If you followed our channel, you can see that there is an eART program, and the eART Coalition is a group that we’re a member of, along with many other prominent companies like DocuSign and some DMVs. We’re in the process of transitioning different DMVs over to electronic titles so you don’t need all that paperwork, but that’s still a few years away.

Additional Information
In the meantime, we’ll get all the documents to you, where to sign them. A couple things you might have to check off boxes, but that’s the package you get and when you get it. If you have any questions, you can contact our Operations Department, they’ll go through it with you. But that’s the package you get from car titles when we do the paperwork for you to get your title easier.

Visit Our YouTube Channel for more insights and discussions on various topics. Consider subscribing to our YouTube channel. Click here!