Title Fraud Being Investigated

The Importance of Vehicle Background Checks
When you are purchasing a vehicle, even if they’re handing you a title, you want to make sure that you do some background checking on that vehicle. We’re getting more and more reports of consumers who are buying vehicles from private sellers, you know, Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace or Offer Up, and the seller actually has a title and they’re giving them a title. But what they’re finding is that title is fraudulent. And the person selling the car may have bought it themselves or they may have done this title scam.

Common Title Fraud Methods
What they’re doing is they’re either getting blank titles from some rogue DMV employee, or they’re taking another title from another vehicle, washing off the information, and typing on the information on the vehicle they’re selling you. And the vehicle they’re selling you turns out either has liens on it or it’s stolen or it has another claim against it or it’s an incorrect VIN number.

Recommended Verification Process
What we recommend doing is whether you’re getting a title or not, you should run a very good background check on the vehicle when you purchase it.

Why Official Channels Matter
You don’t want to use one of these online services like Carfax or Bumper or similar services. Those are kind of not complete information. Matter of fact, their terms and conditions will tell you it’s not complete. You want to do it using official channels. It’ll take a little longer. You can’t really do it online. You have to do it with paperwork, but it will protect your investment.

Protecting Your Investment
If you’re spending thousands or tens of thousands on a vehicle, you don’t want to find out later that that money is all gone because a title was fraud. And even if they hand you a paper certificate, you could find out that they may have done a title pawn or some type of title lien that doesn’t show up on that paper or they used a fake title to get your money from you and then leave you hanging with that vehicle.

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