Reply to "Purchasing from an individual out of state..."

FWIW, I would never give a copy of the title to a prospective buyer. Too much opportunity for him to to commit some kind of fraud and screw me. Although, I would happily provide the VIN so the buyer could verify it through DMV, CarFax, etc.

Hi Garth,

All you need is a VIN# to commit some serious fraud. The next time you walk by a "high line" vehicle in a parking lot, you might notice that the owner has placed a valet ticket that obscures the VIN# in part, or in its entirety. This is to prevent VIN# theft.

I know of a case where a VIN# was stolen to create a title in another state. The perp tried to trade the car into a Carmax dealership. When Carmax ran a Carfax report, the fraud was detected.