How to Identify a Stolen Car

How to reduce the likelihood of purchasing a stolen car? It will take no more than five minutes to check if a particular car is stolen or not if you know what to do. There are multiple services that do the thorough check for you. In the search box, you just need to enter the known information about the car – for example, a state number or a VIN code. And the checker will provide you with a detailed report with the following data:

• If the car is stolen or not;
• Information about arrests (if any);
• Real mileage of the car;
• History of registration actions;
• Data on fines;
• Car insurance, participation in an accident, etc.

Skipping such a check is never a good decision. Therefore, we highly recommend you run a VIN lookup and use a stolen car checker if you are going to purchase an automobile.

Getting Your Eye on a VIN Code

How to check the VIN number? VIN designers and car manufacturers have created an easy way to classify vehicles. It allows you to identify a stolen car and significantly reduces the likelihood of buying a “wrong automobile.”

The VIN code check is based on the fact that not only the symbol but also its position contains certain information about the car. Therefore, it is very difficult for a hijacker to make changes to the VIN combination without violating the integrity and meaning of the encrypted data. You cannot leave the number as it is, since there is a database of stolen cars, by which you can always determine the history of the car. But it is quite difficult to fix the VIN code, especially since a dedicated expert can always easily identify fake numbers.

Play a Safe Game

All American automobile manufacturers and companies exporting their cars to the United States adhere to the following rule when drawing up identification numbers: the ninth position of the VIN is considered a verification number. This condition is met by the majority of European companies.

On the ninth position, there is always a number from 0 to 9, and instead of the number 10, you will see the X letter This cell in the sequence of characters is reserved precisely for checking the correctness of the VIN code. Its value is obtained by simple arithmetic calculations performed on the remaining 16 characters.

The uniqueness of the developed system lies in the fact that anyone who has simple tables and information can answer the difficult question of how to check a car for theft and find out if there is a falsification. The calculations are simple, which makes it easy to determine the fabrication. After all, only knowing the real VIN number, you can find all the answers to your questions.

The good news is that the hijackers are limited in their capabilities and are not able to fix the VIN so that the checksum remains the same. Interrupting the number so as not to leave traces, and even adjusting it to the control number, is almost impossible. So, if you going to check the VIN code, you will hardly fail or make a mistake.