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.
Same M.O. as others have reported in response to a CL ad. Dropped call, then text with the exact same language others said they received . My call was from an unknown number in Pennsylvania, was told to get the report from quickvinnchecks.com and send it to JoAnneClarkuue@yahoo.com. I replied that I Googled the site and it doesn’t look legit … crickets. SCAM!!!!!!!!
Lets add another number and name to that list:
814-560-8493
penelopemurrayH@yahoo.com
Called me about my car and almost immediately hung up before we could actually talk.
I’m actually pretty sure it was an automated message systems because he never actually responded to anything I said but kept talking. Called him out saying “This just got very sketchy, Im not going to that website” and he replied “Hmu when you send the report”
So yes. Scam.
814-236-6727 JackPooleznn@yahoo.com interested in my vehicle saying I should use easyvinchecks.com. Guess what that redirects to?
Please add 412-599-4168 ZoeBallntx@yahoo.com . Same Craigslist Scam as for other comments.
Same scammer contacted me. Call and text from 951-381-3856 saying he is interested and asked me to provide a vehicle report from vinautomobile.net and send to him at ruthaveryqj@yahoo.com
So glad I found this site before I went forward with this scammer. He’s in CA but told me he would come to AZ for a test drive – RED FLAG! These pieces of garbage appear to be everywhere in our society today.
(407) 604-9973 PetersGraceYM@yahoo.com
“One more thing, do you mind sending me a history report of the car to show the title is clean and no major accidents?
The best place to get one from is: autotitlesafe.com send it to me at PetersGraceYM@yahoo.com if you can!”
Wont disclose name or any information, and not aking the right question about the car.
Had a similar experience via text for the car that I am selling. Here is a copy of the text message:
Copy of message from: 929-429-1427
One more thing, do you mind if i see a copy of your cars history report? You can get it from vinncheckednow.com -if so, send it to me at JuliaShortNy@yahoo.com if you can!
Want to confirm I got a text from +1 (760) 257-0826 asking a few questions then the suggestion to get the VIN report I never heard of.
After they made the suggestion they would view and test drive the car after they see the report, it really sounded fishy.
Told them that this was a terrible way to market a firm and it will damage their reputation. The. I found this site confirming the suspicion. Flake outfit . Beware
Same story. Add to the list: vincheckednow.com, RachelNorthtNc@yahoo.com, (661) 338-5017 . They keep changing the website name so you won’t be able to find the scam blog. Interesting thing is that they keep using yahoo email. Did they buy them from the hack couple years ago
Just received a text asking me to get a report from vincheckednow.com. The email address to send the results to is LeahUnderwoodKMU@yahoo.com. Phone number 469-731-9850.
My first clue that something is fishy is an out of state phone number. It happens that someone just moved or they didn’t change their cell phone number, but when it’s followed by an unknown web site to type personal information into you know it has to be a scam.