Selling a second-hand car can fetch lucrative benefits. It can help you to create an enormous scope to invest in something else or some additional space in your garage. However, selling a car isn’t what people should be fretting over; instead, it’s the fundamentals of understanding the safety concerns related to VINs.
Sharing a VIN number can be advantageous or detrimental either way, based on how you are selling your vehicle. Data pilfering cases have become a significant issue lately, and you must be wary of with whom you are sharing the car’s details.
Without delay, let’s find out if it’s safe to reveal a VIN number.
What is a VIN?
VIN indicates a 17-digit unique vehicle identification number for every car, mainly used for authentication checks. Therefore, with a VIN, any person can get the details of any car and see the vehicle history.
The VIN number is accessible to everyone as it is located in diverse car areas, such as in the driver’s seat window, dashboard, etc.
Why Should Buyers Perform a VIN check?
Innumerable advantages are there for knowing a car’s VIN, enabling the purchaser to eliminate scams and ensure they are purchasing the genuine vehicle. With this popular VIN check, you can perform countless checks about the car you are willing to purchase.
Buyers need a VIN check as they will get a full-fledged report, which is shown below:
- Damage report
- Safety and maintenance reminders
- A theft record
- Previous photos of the car
- Maintenance Details
- Mileage accuracy
- The previous country where the car was registered
What Are the Benefits of Sharing Your VIN?
Have you found your potential buyer inclined to purchase that car from you? Great news! Now, they are asking you for the car’s VIN. So, is it okay to pass on the VIN number? Let’s see!
As mentioned earlier, sharing your car’s VIN number has potential advantages and disadvantages. Most buyers nowadays want a thorough history of the vehicle before they buy it.
More accurately, the interested ones want to know the nitty-gritty specs of a car, including manufacturers, model, engine type, and value of the car. So, if you don’t want to share it with the buyer, you might be losing a customer.
However, some of the fantastic benefits of sharing your VIN are shown below:
- Better transparency
The customers feel satiated when a seller passes on the VIN quickly. They feel trustworthy and such transparency creates top-notch relations between them.
No one wants to buy a car blindly without having proper details. Therefore, giving away the VIN represents that you acknowledge their crosschecking and also provides a better sense that there is nothing erroneous about the car.
- Top-notch sales or get a fair cost for your car
When the seller discloses the car’s VIN number, the buyer would be capable of checking the specification of the car. It will significantly help them make a good decision on the car’s price and also the seller has the right to ask for a fair amount for this giant ride.
In case the car is in excellent condition and the buyer crosschecks everything about it, a good sale is on the go!
- Find out the genuine buyer
Like cars, all the buyers out there are not similar. A relationship must be started with transparency from both sides. This is how honesty will help you allure an authentic buyer that won’t try to deceive you. So, if you can find one genuine buyer, it would be a perfect match!
What are the probable threats of passing on the car’s VIN?
Various potential risks are entangled with the massive use of a personal number, like VIN. You must know anybody can snoop on the car’s windshield while passing your house.
Therefore, you should be extra conscientious when it comes to sharing this confidential code. Oversharing is undoubtedly the biggest problem. Let’s check out the probable threats:
- VIN cloning
Cloning of your VIN number is the most considerable threat to be anxious about. It can cause enormous losses for the sellers along with the customers; that’s why it is known as the greatest threat.
During VIN cloning, the robbed cars are provided with a new VIN of any ordinary vehicle to give them a different identity than before. Therefore, two vehicles will be moving in the state with a similar VIN number.
Buyers often fall for the sugar-coated words of the seller and purchase a ride at a lowered rate. So, purchasing a car with a cloned VIN might put your life at risk, you could be arrested, or cops can confiscate your cars.
- Threat to the owner’s identity
The VIN number of the car is an asset of the owner. Therefore, when they start oversharing to a large group audience, their identity will also be at stake. That’s how anyone who is willing to explore the owner’s details, such as name, address, age, nationality, and other details, can seamlessly do so by a VIN check.
- Incorrect tax returns on your VIN
Anyone, who has noted down the VIN, can quickly file an illegitimate tax return. Though there are not many such instances reported, taking essential precautions could never be harmful to you.
Also, the car owner will have to undergo a plethora of issues concerning the tax returns document provided by the owner, which will not be a unique one.
Concluding Words
You might have been in this business of selling your cars for a few years, or you might be a newbie. It’s evident that no seller ever wants to see their car departing without earning a little profit out of it.
Sharing your VIN is only recommendable if the potential buyer genuinely wants to purchase that car. Also, it’s not safe to advertise your car along with its VIN number published on the internet.
To conclude, you must utilize your VIN sagaciously to conquer a potential customer, but understand that such practices don’t compromise your privacy.
