Official VIN (officialvin.com) is a web-based platform which performs vehicle history reports.
The site was registered on January 2nd, 2018 by OfficialVIN Service.
Official VIN Overview
Official VIN’s operation is based around the principle of creating a more secure vehicle acquisition experience in terms of being able to perform history reports on any vehicle within a few short minutes.
While Official VIN fails to provide information regarding their origins, according to their domain, they are actively operating in a partnership with the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System along with undisclosed government agencies and industry partners.
These various partnerships enable Official VIN to obtain a designated vehicles history report and provides them to the consumer for a rate of $18.95 a piece.
How does Official VIN Work?
According to research, Official VIN appears to function as an intermediary service platform for their partnered organizations.
As stated at their domain, the majority of vehicle history reports acquired are obtained through affiliation with the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS).
Those looking to research the history of a particular vehicle are able to enter the vehicles VIN number along with the designated zip code.
Within a few short minutes, Official VIN obtains the report from NMVTIS and renders the obtained history report in an order form which prompts the user to order their vehicle history report for $18.95.
Among the criteria covered in a vehicles history report would be title problem checks, prior damage checks, odometer checks, salvage/theft/lien checks along with historical events such as impound, export, recall and online sale records.
Due to operating in affiliation with the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, Official VIN infers and supports that each obtained vehicle history report is backed with 100% transparency.
Question Marks and Red Flags
Official VIN is only compatible with US citizens which likely infers that their operation is based out of the United States. Official VIN is allegedly owned by OfficialVIN Service, although we were unsuccessful in finding any records at the Better Business Bureau to support their claim.
While the footer of their site incorporates a cumulative total vehicles checks widget of over 13.8 million, it raises speculation in regards the accuracy of this claim due to the fact that according to a WHOIS report, officialvin.com was a privately registered site that has a creation date of January 2nd, 2018.
Whether the alleged total vehicles checked is through Official VIN or through the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, we are uncertain, but it seems highly unlikely it would pertain to Official VIN’s operation.
Among of the most pressing concerns regarding Official VIN that should be answered would be what is their corporate number and why the site doesn’t incorporate identifiable features regarding their operation.
In order to find anything of value regarding identity we had to scrounge their Privacy Policy which only disclosed OfficialVIN Service along with support@officialvin.com as identifying features.
Community Feedback
When we first published this review, Official VIN was only a couple of months old and had yet failed to acquire much community feedback.
A couple months after composing the original publication though, we have received many reports of unethical business practices in regards to Official VIN.
Shared below this review are some of the disturbing reports and the professional courtesy one could promptly expect from Official VIN.
Phone Numbers Reported
- 767-907-8606
- 573-539-4979
- 573-401-9686
- 573-389-0593
- 740-901-6526
- 215-560-0989
- 708-779-1747
- 805-678-1756
- 484-983-6473
- 484-983-6431
- 607-354-5504
- 760-249-0712
- 267-794-1455
- 470-615-8516
- 573-562-0431
- 573-574-9389
- 762-524-8923
- 470-274-9630
- 708-640-8439
- 740-330-1602
- 909-686-3058
Email Addresses Reported
- NatalieMcLeanGuU@Yahoo.com
- TheresaClarkNY@yahoo.com
- PeterKerrSC@yahoo.com
- AngelaHamiltonpD@yahoo.com
- SamRobertsonCZ@yahoo.com
- PhilWilkinsoYt@yahoo.com
- RachelDaviesaC@yahoo.com
- JasmineClarksonEN@yahoo.com
- AmeliaParrPEY@yahoo.com
- sophielnceYRE@yahoo.com
- TheresaPaigeoYf@yahoo.com
- VaughanWandaeG@yahoo.com
- AnthonyRutherfordHo@yahoo.com
- PeterRutherfordpbT@yahoo.com
- michelleNorthwyp@yahoo.com
- BrianGibsonbi@yahoo.com
- JoanneMacLeodZHy@yahoo.com
- WatsonAlexandrasR@yahoo.com
Complaints regarding the disclosed telephone numbers and email addresses have been filed against Official VIN.
Popularity
OfficialVIN.com has reflected an unnatural and unprecedented surge in growth according to SimiliarWeb.
Reflecting a global rank of 423,066 with a US rank of 91,591, Official VIN went from supporting 9,000 monthly visitors in January 2018 to over 150,000 as of February 2018.
During the time of writing this review (March 2018), Official VIN receives approximately 44.48% of their traffic from referral based sources while 17.90% is composed from e-mail based sources.
During the time of updating this review (May 1st, 2018), OfficialVIN.com has significantly loss traffic circulation and went from reflecting a global rank of 423,066 to 1,505,472. Previously, Official VIN was reflecting signs of utilizing inorganic traffic acquisition practices to acquire additional traffic but according to recent research and community feedback their site has declined in popularity and trustability.
Should Official VIN be Trusted?
Official VIN functions as an independent and nearly anonymous operation which are normally indications one should avoid when considering using any incentivized platform.
At first, we found Official VIN trustable due to their affiliation with the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System although troubling consumer feedback has made us reconsider our position. Therefore, we are no longer suggesting that Official VIN is trustworthy.
Official VIN Review – The Ruling
When it comes to utilizing or fulfilling a purchase through a newly created domain such as officialvin.com, we always encourage to exercise caution and check for insightful community feedback before committing.
Combining the updated community consensus in accordance with the research we disclosed in the review above, we are not recommending Official VIN.
Please add 484-370-1681 and email addresses KeithParsonslr@yahoo.com, RichardCameronFP@yahoo.com to your list. i was asked to use vinchectoday.com and vincheckednow.com. The first did not work and the I used the second but did not get a copy of the report.
Another email address and phone number used with this scam : LaurenHemmingsrZo@yahoo.com and +1-909-687-2681
Just got a text from 717 area code, east coast, and I’m on the west coast. Guy says he moved a lot hence the need for a car. Asked that I get a report from official.vin for the car I’m selling.As soon as I texted that I would get a car history report but from another site, the conversation ended.
Same story…starts off with is car listed on CL still available. Then “everything looks good” and “have a couple questions for you” and the next question is “whats your price for your 2004 XXX?”. I responded it’s in the ad and they came back with “Can you also get a copy of your cars history report?”, put the link in for this bogus site and asked to email it to AbigailWalshcWT@yahoo.com. I went quiet and they asked “hey, don’t mean to bother you but are you still here”, I replied not interested. They came back with “lmk after you’ve pulled the report and we can make a time to meet up”. Sure this is a bot that’s just combing for sale sites.
Same story. I received a text from (909)662-8751 that said, “Hi! Is your car thats listed on CL still available?” [my car was listed on AutoTrader, not Craigslist]
After a few texts, they asked me to go to supremevinnchecks.com then another text directing me to vincheckplatinums.com
after correcting the spelling of the first link, I found both links forwarded to official.vin
They ask for your VIN then the next screen asks for name, email, phone. the next button apparently goes to payment information. I didn’t enter my name, email, or phone, so I didn’t get that far. I then googled “official.vin scam” and found this site. Thanks!
Outside of credit card scams do they do any kind of VIN scamming if you enter in your VIN # + name/address? Are they only interested in the CC #?
You will get a robotic type call, then they will text asking you to go and get a vehicle report at platinumvinchecks.com which forwards to official.vin
First text read as
“Hi, is your car that’s listed on CL still available?
The text was from 740-849-1609 and they wanted me to send report to
GavinDuncanwhtW@yahoo.com
another email from where these people are continuing to perpetuate fraud: slatercameronqa@yahoo.com
same story here, now I see I was scammed by a machine scammer. Is there any way that these people can be reported and brought down? this is fraud
And another one, call from 727-605-9859 asked about CL (Car was listed on Autotrader) then texted and asked me to buy a report from supremevinnchecks.com The misspelling of VIN with 2x N’s made me think twice. Email address was given as ColinClarkiJ@yahoo.com and is definitely a scam.