Buying a stolen car, whether you’re aware of it or not, can get you into considerable legal difficulties. When buying a used car or trading with a private seller, it’s necessary for you to do some research. In this post, we will show you the 5 most effective ways to check if a car is stolen.

1. Run a stolen VIN check with BeenVerified

VIN (vehicle identification number), made up of 17 characters, is a unique identity of a vehicle. With this digit, you can unearth a car’s history, title status, and ownership and more essential information you’ll need to check a used car.

If you don’t have a VIN, searching by the license plate also works.

BeenVerified is one of the best all-around public records finder. It allows you to acquire crucial details about a vehicle by VIN or license plate number. Besides, it supports name search, reverse phone lookup and more search options, which could help you gain deeper insights into the vehicle owner or seller.

1) Go to the BeenVerified vehicle search page.

2) Enter a VIN number or a license plate + State to search. Click the SEARCH button and you’re good to go.

3) Wait a while until the results load up. Unlock the report, you can see essential info such as the specifications, owner details, theft records, accident and salvage records, title records and so on.

2. Track vehicle ownership with Bumper

Bumper is also a professional VIN check tool. By searching with a VIN or license plate number, you’ll get access toa car’s accident history, titles, recalls, equipment and trim specifications, sale history, market value, ownership costs, and more.

1) Visit the Bumper homepage. Select the search type you prefer, enter the VIN or license plate number and click SEARCH.

2) Once the report is ready, take a look at the information revealed or you can download Bumper on iOS or Android to view the report on the go.

3. Explore vehicle history with EpicVIN

EpicVIN is a reliable and trustworthy data provider approved by NMVTIS (National Motor Vehicle Title Information System). With over 350 million data, it’s easy for you to identify whether a vehicle is stolen and being resold. You can also learn if the vehicle has a clean title across all states or holds any secret history of accident or damage.

1) Go to EpicVIN. Choose how you want to search, by VIN or License Plate, enter the number and check.

2) Unlock the report, where you’ll see different sections and how many records are included. Click each section to view the details, or you could go straight to the Stolen vehicle check.

4. Check out official resources

If third-party VIN check services don’t work for you, there are some official resources you can refer to.

• NICB VINCheck
  VINCheck of NICB (National Insurance Crime Bureau) is a free service to check vehicle records of insurance theft claim and salvage. You could perform up to 5 searches within 24 hours.
• DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles)
  This is an official source for vehicle registration, driver licenses, occupational licenses, and more. You’ll need to submit a formal request and pay a little fee to acquire the info.

5. Contact your insurer

Insurance companies have their own databases of vehicles. So you could just turn to your insurer for help and ask them to check if the car has been stolen and whether the VIN has been cloned or transferred.

Conclusion

You should be careful when buying a used car from a private seller. Verifying the VIN number is an effective way to research a vehicle and get away with the stolen ones. Apart from checking the real facts of a vehicle, you can also run a background search on the seller to know better about the person you’re dealing with.

Hopefully this post helped. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below.