Giving someone Vehicle Identification Numbers Safe?

[Scott Shepherd]

Put a vehicle up for sale and had a person email me asking me for the VIN number of the vehicle so they could do a Carfax check on it. It hit me as 50% normal, and 50% questionable. Made me wonder if it was safe to do so or if there was any scam involved or possible in giving someone the VIN number. I don't think it's anything they can do, otherwise you'd be able to walk around parking lots and gather up numbers and do whatever it is they would do with them.

But wanted to double check before I go emailing something that someone might be able to use against me.

Safe? I think so, right?

[Dan Hintz]

Sort of. They can use the VIN to sell a fake car on Craigslist... when someone asks them for the VIN, they give up yours, and the Carfax makes it look like a good vehicle. Money is sent, never to be seen again.

That said, you need to give up the number eventually so they can get some insurance on the vehicle.

So, it all comes down to what you feel comfortable with. If you get a weird feeling about the person, tell them you'd be happy to provide the info if they'd like to come out and see the vehicle in person. Selling it long distance can be more troublesome, of course.

[Brian Elfert]

If you go to Autotrader.com the VIN numbers are right in the ads for anyone to look at, even the private sellers. If someone wants a VIN for criminal reasons there are easier ways than emailing Craigslist sellers.

[Steve Peterson]

They could come by to test drive it and read the VIN from the dashboard. I don't see any additional risk in giving out the number ahead of time.

Steve

[Duane Meadows]

Does anyone actually pay for a fake car on Craigslist? If so... got what they deserved!

[John Pratt]

If I was purchasing the vehicle, I would want the VIN up front to check the vehicles history and possible insurance rates before I drove a long way to test drive/check it out. Why waste the trip if I find out the insurance rates aren't what I thought they would be or if I find the vehicle was in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans during Katrina.

[Steve Meliza]

It is very common these days to have the VIN made available for a carfax report. Some dealerships proactively make the carfax reports available so that you don't even have to ask for one. I don't buy east coast cars so I'm not even going to come look at your vehicle till I know where all it has been registered.

As far as I know there isn't a problem with giving out your VIN to a prospective buyer.

[Stephen Tashiro]

Just out of curiousity, how many different parts on a car have the VIN number on them?

[Steve Meliza]

Just out of curiousity, how many different parts on a car have the VIN number on them?

Depends on when it was made, could be one place or dozens.

[John M Wilson]

As an auto plant engineer dating back into the mid-70's, in my time there have always been at least two. One is the well-known VIN plate on the cowl just inside the windshield, and the other was a manufacturer-chosen government-approved "hidden" VIN. On Cadillacs (that's where I worked) we stamped it on a crossbar of the frame, usually mid-car around the driver's seat.

Many manufacturers experimented with a variety of laser-printed labels applied to high-theft parts, and once laser-etching became practical, many other areas of the car became labeled. The difficulty of this process to the manufacturer is that you must wait until the vehicle is assigned a VIN before you start labeling things. Once that is done, that's no longer a collection of parts, that's a car; and scrapping and/or disposing of the vehicle afterwards incurs a mountain of paperwork.

[Biff Johnson]

I wouldn't sweat giving it out...they might be calling PD to see if it's stolen or running a Carfax. Plus you can also tell production information off the VIN. It's not like the VIN is top secret information...almost every car has it visible at the bottom of the windshield where any mope walking by can see it. If there was a danger, would car lots print it on the window sticker or in advertisements?

[Scott Shepherd]

Thanks, spoke to the guy on the phone, told him it's history, he came to look at it and bought it, so didn't have to give the VIN number out! At least I know it's safe in the future. I thought it was, but figured I better check since new scams seem to pop up every week on craigslist.

Interestingly enough, we posted a vehicle in Autotrader and it took about 3 months to sell. They called and I had a long talk with a guy one day and he told me that the average time spent on auto trader was about 4 months. We had it priced at $9,000 and they called and said it hadn't been sold because it was priced too low and their default search brought higher prices up first, so no one was getting to the last page of the search to see our ad. They recommended upping it to $10,500. We did, got a call or two, then they called again and said the same thing, said we needed to raise the price to $11,200.

Put this one on craigslist and sold it in 24 hours (and it didn't cost me the $100+ that auto trader charged me).

[Chris Damm]

Just out of curiousity, how many different parts on a car have the VIN number on them?

You do realize that the N in VIN stands for number don't you?

[Jason Roehl]

You do realize that the N in VIN stands for number don't you?

One among many common acronym stutters: ATM machine, HIV virus, PIN number, etc.

[Dan Hintz]

One among many common acronym stutters: ATM machine, HIV virus, PIN number, etc.

DOR Department


(Department of Redundancy)