How to check a car for theft in Russia

Check the car for theft according to the state. number

Where to go to check your car for theft

Before shelling out your hard-earned money, you need to check whether the car is wanted in connection with theft. And this must be done before signing the contract and transferring the money to the previous owner. If the purchase and sale procedure is completed, and the car has been stolen, most likely this will be revealed upon registration with the traffic police. The chances of getting the car back or at least the money paid are almost zero. Therefore, having looked at a used car, contact, for example, the nearest traffic police department to get the car registered for theft according to the state. number. The procedure will take some time, but you will have peace of mind that you did not receive a stolen “iron horse.”

When deciding to purchase a used car, the buyer should remember the following:

· When re-registered by the traffic police, the car is automatically checked for theft, but this happens after the money is transferred to the seller. Vehicles that are wanted or have a criminal record will be immediately seized. If, when purchasing, it is not possible to contact the traffic police department, ask traffic police officers to get the car certified according to the state license. number and VIN code in the Russian Federation database and through Interpol.

· If the owner does not want to deal with law enforcement agencies, you can perform a preliminary check of the vehicle according to the state. numbers and VIN code in online services. Although the very fact of refusal should alert the buyer and encourage him to abandon this car.

· Check the car for theft according to the state. number can be found at any car dealership.

· Check the car for theft using the VIN code or state registration number. number via the Internet service “Autoraport”. By checking your car for free using VIN or state numbers, you will receive a brief report containing basic information about the car (year of manufacture, color, engine size and power, engine and transmission numbers, etc.). Already from this data you can understand that the car is in the official databases. And the full report includes a detailed history of this car from both a legal and technical point of view.

State numbers or VIN code?

License plates play a key role when checking vehicles. For example, on the traffic police website, a theft check is carried out by identification number (VIN code), and if it is not known, then by body or chassis number.

Verification by state number (GRN) is of great importance. Car license plates, installed in strictly designated places in the front and rear of the bumper or body, contain information about the state and region in which the car is registered, the series and the actual registration number of the car.

Still, a more reliable way is to check by VIN code. VIN is a unique combination of 17 numbers and symbols, which is designed specifically to protect against falsification. This code encrypts basic information about a specific machine and also contains a checksum. It is, of course, possible to fake a VIN code, but changing it so as not to distort the stored information is a practically impossible task. Since the database of those wanted for stolen cars is updated regularly, and information about stolen cars remains in the databases forever, checking for theft by VIN code will accurately show whether a stolen car is being offered to you.

Signs of a “dark horse”

If you do not have the opportunity to consult with the competent authorities or connect to the Internet and register your car for theft under the state law. number or VIN code online, we suggest following the advice of professionals. Here are the main signs of a “dark horse”:

· Incomplete set of keys . If the car is a year or two old, two keys should be kept in the kit. A seller who cannot provide both keys and claims that the second copy was lost should alert you. It is likely that the lock has been changed. It’s better not to take risks and have the car stolen under the state law. number and VIN code.

· Inconsistency or defects in VIN codes . Carefully, preferably with a magnifying glass, check the VIN codes on the body, as well as the engine number. Make sure that they have not been changed and correspond to the numbers indicated in the registration certificate. At the factory, the numbers and symbols that make up the markings are written in an even, clear font, without the slightest flaws. If you find the slightest defect, you should contact experts or the traffic police. An online check in the Autoreport Internet service will also help you find out whether this car is listed as stolen.

· Significantly reduced cost . If you are offered a car that is too cheap, it could be stolen or, even worse, involved in crime. Don’t be too lazy to get your car checked for theft according to the state. number and VIN code and in no case should you hesitate to offend the seller. After all, your hard-earned money is on the line, and you have every right to worry about it.

After checking the history of the car and making sure that it does not cause any complaints, feel free to enter into an agreement and own the “iron horse” you like for pleasure.

Checking a car for theft

According to statistics, 92% of stolen cars in Russia disappear without a trace. To avoid accidentally buying a stolen car, check it with Autocode!

How to find out if a car is stolen or not

Check the car for theft according to state regulations. number in 5 minutes - easy! Enter known information about the car into the search bar - for example, license plate, VIN or chassis number. The site will provide a brief description of the machine. Now you need to pay for the full service, and you will receive a detailed report with the following data:

Is the car reported stolen or not?
Arrest Information
Real car mileage
History of registration actions
Fines data
Car insurance, participation in an accident, etc.

If the car is noticed as stolen, then most likely you will have to prove your innocence and give the car back for the duration of the investigation, and maybe for good.

Why is it important to check your car for theft - expert opinion

Denis Lukin, auto expert, Remontista company

“Before buying a car, you must find out its technical condition and legal purity (prohibition of registration actions, crime). The check must be done even if the car is sold at a dealer’s showroom, and not just through an advertisement.

Living example: A man bought a Peugeot 308 simply on trust, without any checks. He drove for a short time before the police came to him, explained that the car was stolen, and soon the injured owner took it away. Of course, no one returned the money to the buyer. There are many such cases, so diagnostics before purchasing is the same necessary procedure as checking a car online through avtoсod.ru.”

What happens if you don’t check your car for arrest, search, or theft?

Anatoly Shitsin

“Four years ago I bought a Priora. A young girl was selling a car. I didn’t consider it necessary to look up his history online at that time. A year before the sale, she purchased a car in Kazan, and during this time no one from the police disturbed the owner. We made a deal with her in Perm. Two weeks after the purchase I arrived for registration. The traffic police database showed that the car was stolen, and the car was taken from me. The previous owner had no idea that it was stolen. The purchased vehicle was not returned to me; the police said: “Look for the thief.” No one ever found the fraudsters.”

Deception schemes

There are at least three schemes to deceive buyers of used cars. Some scammers create a duplicate car by filling in the license plates of another car and falsify documents. Others buy a car on lease in Europe and sell it in Russia. Still others interrupt the body number.

You can make sure that your car needs to be checked and find out how stolen vehicles are sold in our special material.

Checking a car for theft before purchasing

Why is it better to check using Autocode? The advantages of the online service are obvious:

Unlike other services, the site allows you to check whether a car has been stolen using its license plate number, without entering additional data. You can also punch the car by
Checking a car for theft takes no more than 5 minutes;
All data provided by the service is checked against the traffic police database;
The service does not require registration, which speeds up verification;
The service is available in the mobile application. You can check a car for theft using its license plate number from anywhere in the country;
The service allows you to check Japanese cars according to state registration. number.

You receive the report online without leaving your home. This saves time and costs on trips to experts and the traffic police. And most importantly, with Autocode, at the time of purchase you will already know the history of the desired car, which will help you recognize deception and make the right choice.

Check the car for theft

How to check a car for theft according to state regulations. number or VIN code?

What are the risks of buying a stolen car?

Simplifying the procedure for selling vehicles is, without a doubt, a good innovation, but it also has its drawbacks. Now there is no need to deregister the car in order to draw up a purchase and sale agreement - re-registration is possible already during operation by the new owner. This means that the buyer will not be able to check the car during the transaction for it to be stolen, restrictions, fines, arrests and liens - all the pitfalls will be discovered after the purchase, which is unlikely to be appealed.

Verification methods

There are several ways to check a car for theft using its license plate number:

Get through the traffic police - the car needs to be driven to the site of the State Traffic Inspectorate, where the inspector, after providing the necessary documentation, will check the vehicle for prohibitions, restrictions, fines, etc.
Find out the history of a car through the online service “AutoHistory”. Everything here is extremely simple and fast - you only need to know the VIN code or state number.

Among the disadvantages of the first method are the need for the presence of the real owner, significant travel time, paperwork and tedious waiting in queues.

How to register a car on the AutoHistory website?

Checking a car for theft online using VIN code or state code. number - the easiest, most inexpensive and effective way. Information is collected from various official (ROSSTAT, traffic police, FSSP, NBKI, Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation and many others), commercial (insurance companies authorized by service stations) and unofficial sources. This database is the most voluminous in all of Russia - it contains more than 30 million vehicles and allows you to check a used car by license plate number in just a few minutes without any restrictions or regional restrictions.

The operating principle of the online service “AutoHistory”:

Enter your VIN code or state license. vehicle number.
Click “Check”.
To receive a full report, you need to pay for the service and indicate your email, to which the vehicle history will be sent to you.

All this will take you a maximum of 15 minutes, including waiting for the report.

Check out an example from our report:

As a result, for a nominal fee, you will be able to check whether the vehicle you are purchasing is stolen, and also receive the most informative and truthful report about the car.

What else can you find out using online verification?

The report reflects a lot of data - from general information (make, model, year of manufacture, characteristics) to Carfax history (for imported vehicles).

The most important data that can be found out by checking a car by license plate through our online service are:

Registration actions - you will be able to view the complete list of vehicle owners.

Seizure information. Restrictions are usually imposed by the bailiff service. Also, arrest is carried out when the fact of illegal import or illegal “customs clearance” of a vehicle is revealed (by the customs service).

Detailed information about involvement in road traffic accidents, indicating the date, time, region and type of accident. If photographs from the accident scene are available in any source, they will also be attached to the report.

Customs data. If the vehicle being checked is imported from another country, the report indicates the country of export, the date of clearance at customs, the actual mileage and the cost determined by customs.

The report consists of 6 pages, which reflects absolutely all information about a specific vehicle included in the database.

The main thing is to remember that it is mandatory to check the car by state number for theft and other criminal and judicial facts. Only in this case will you be able to buy a legally clean car. Punch through - “AutoHistory” works for you 24 hours a day, without holidays or weekends.

How to independently check a car for theft in 2019

When buying a used car, many limit themselves to visual inspection and checking for accidents in various ways, and forget about legal purity. On the secondary market, among conscientious sellers, there are also criminals trying to sell stolen vehicles. Checking a car for theft is currently carried out independently via the Internet and allows you to identify wanted cars before concluding a transaction.

When is a theft check needed?

Since 2013, before selling a car, you no longer need to deregister with the traffic police. The buyer and seller independently draw up a purchase and sale agreement and settle payments among themselves. Then the new owner must contact the nearest traffic police MREO within 10 days and re-register the vehicle in his name. This is where unpleasant surprises can await him.

If the car is put on the wanted list or it is discovered that the VIN code on it is broken, inspectors will be forced to return it to its rightful owner.

It is almost impossible to get your money back in this situation, since the attacker will be out of reach by this time.

In order to avoid losing money and a vehicle, before making payment you should definitely check to see if the car you like is on the wanted list. This ironclad rule can be neglected only if the seller is a close relative or long-time acquaintance.

Verification methods

Before you find out if a car is wanted, you first need to check its VIN code. It is indicated in the STS or PTS, but it is best to look under the hood of the car and look at the body shell.

At the same time, you should check that the code is not damaged. In this way, it will be possible to detect traces of attempts to change the VIN combination - by the unusual shape of some symbols. This can be done with the permission of the vehicle owner. An honest seller will not object to this simple procedure.

At the traffic police department

Theft check by the traffic police before purchase is carried out free of charge at any nearest branch of the State Traffic Inspectorate. The data of cars put on the wanted list are placed in a single database.

To carry out the inspection, you should come to the nearest traffic police inspection in a car that needs to be checked to identify the facts of theft. Of course, this can only be done with the consent of the seller. If he flatly refuses this procedure, the deal should be abstained. If a criminal history is revealed, the car and its owner will be detained until all the circumstances are clarified.

With the help of expert organizations

Any examination conducted by employees of the Forensic Bureau of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation can reliably determine whether a car is stolen or not. Its specialists will be able to identify:

traces of changes in the VIN code combination;
changing the paint and varnish coating (repainting);
signs of document forgery;
traces of doors being opened by foreign objects;
signs of transportation of narcotic or explosive substances in the vehicle.

Expert bureaus can determine for free that the car is not stolen, only at the request of investigative or judicial authorities. And if you go there on your own initiative, you must conclude an agreement and pay the cost of the work. The list of certified experts and their addresses can be downloaded on the website of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the section “Activities in the field of forensic examination”.

Through the Internet

Today, any active Internet user can independently search for stolen cars by license plate and VIN code. Information is provided by the traffic police from the database. It contains information about cars whose owners have filed reports of theft with law enforcement agencies.

Online check on the traffic police website

The easiest way to find out the purity of a future purchase is to check the car for theft using the VIN code on the traffic police website.

The check is carried out free of charge through the “Car Check” service without registering an account.

The number of operations performed is not limited. To get the result, just enter the VIN code and click “Request Verification”.

If the car with the entered number is not on the wanted list, the message will appear on the monitor: “There is no information about the vehicle being wanted according to the VIN you specified.”

To identify a fake VIN, you must request a registration history check here. If everything is in order, you will see information about the car on the monitor.

And if the VIN is interrupted, the following picture will appear:

The information in the second screenshot indicates that the car was never registered with the traffic police. This only happens with new cars from a car dealership, as well as in the case of a broken VIN code.

Service “Autocode”

If the vehicle is registered in Moscow or the Moscow region, you can check its history using the car number through the “Autocode” service on the website of the mayor of Moscow. To do this, you must indicate its license plate number or registration certificate.

Whether the car is listed as stolen or not is indicated in the vehicle history report in the “Wanted” column.

Visual inspection

Checking by VIN is carried out free of charge only using the two services described above. There are also paid web resources for checking vehicle history, including criminal history. Even before conducting an online check, during a visual inspection, you can identify the seller’s dishonesty by the following signs:

Mechanical damage to the VIN code - poorly distinguishable symbols and their strange outlines. Criminals do not change all the numbers, but only 1 or 2, which are easy to change. For example, 5 can be changed to 6; the number 8 could have been 6 or 9 in the past.
Signs of replacement of the ignition switch, door locks and only one set of keys are grounds for doubt about the legal purity of the car.
The seller finds it difficult to answer simple questions - mileage of the car, in which dealership it was purchased, at what price, where it was serviced, brands of technical fluids used, alarm model, etc.
A duplicate PTS is another reason to get your car registered in the traffic police database.
Signs of counterfeit license plates and registration certificates are uneven numbers and letters, poor-quality printing.

Engine check

Car engines, like bodies, have unique numbers. If the cars are stolen, the attackers also break them down. To do this, use the same method as when changing the characters in the VIN code combination. In some cases, the engine number may be unreadable. You should refrain from such purchases.

Is it possible to buy a car returned after it was stolen?

Cars found after theft must be returned to their owners, even if the body and engine numbers are altered. Buyers should avoid purchasing such vehicles. The fact is that a car returned after theft with a broken VIN code can continue to be used by the rightful owner. However, according to current legislation, such a car cannot be transferred to another owner (sold, donated, etc.). Any change or damage to the VIN code is a legal basis for refusal to carry out registration actions in the traffic police.

Forensic examination

If, during an inspection before registration, traffic police officers find signs of a change in the VIN code or illegible characters, the car will be immediately detained to identify criminal events in its history. To do this, the vehicle can be sent to the forensic bureau for the purpose of conducting a thorough inspection.

Other types of checks

In order not to lose your car immediately after purchasing it, you must also check it for restrictions, liens and liens. The discovery of any of such facts in the history of a vehicle is grounds for refusal to register it by traffic police officers and for seizure.

Restrictions on the traffic police database are relevant for cars pledged to the bank in order to ensure the conscientious fulfillment of car loan obligations by their owners. Borrowers can use credit machines freely, even entrust management to third parties. However, until the debt is fully repaid, cars cannot be sold - they are subject to restrictions on registration actions. Borrowers who have problems repaying their loans sometimes try to sell their cars before the bank repossesses them.

In cases where the right to own a car is disputed in court, during the proceedings it is seized, which prohibits the re-registration and operation of the vehicle. For example, such a situation may occur during the division of property as a result of divorce proceedings or contestation of inheritance. In order to prevent attempts by one of the parties to the conflict to sell the car, the court applies the arrest procedure.

A vehicle is secured not only if it is purchased with a car loan. This can happen some time after the purchase, when the owner decides to get a loan from a bank or pawnshop secured by movable property. In this case, information about this event may not reach the traffic police. If restrictions and arrests are on the website of the State Traffic Inspectorate, then the pledge can only be found out from the register of pledged property of the Federal Notary Chamber.

Conclusion

Criminals try to sell a stolen vehicle as quickly as possible, so they ask for a price significantly lower than the market price. You should not fall for their tricks and rush into concluding a deal without thoroughly conducting all checks. Only a competent approach to business and thoughtful actions can guarantee that you will not lose your car after purchase.

Practicing lawyer with 10 years of experience. Specializations: criminal law, insurance law, administrative offenses.

Checking a car for theft

Obtaining information on a vehicle on the wanted list

Enter your vehicle's VIN code below and click "Request Verification":

In Russia, more than 90% of stolen cars are listed as missing. So, in order to avoid the risk of purchasing a stolen vehicle, before purchasing it, you need to check the car for theft using the VIN code, on our website completely free of charge.

How to find out whether a car is listed as stolen or not

This is done easily and in just a few seconds. To start checking your car, fill in the top field with your unique VIN number. Then, in the next option, enter the special security code into the form provided and click the check button. The system will immediately give you the result. If the car is already listed as stolen, and you have already purchased it, you will have to prove your presumption of innocence. To avoid this, try to immediately use our service and then you will avoid all the troubles associated with car theft.

An easy way to check a car for theft using the traffic police database

There is no guarantee that the purchased used car is not on the list of stolen cars. It is very difficult for most buyers to check whether the car they want to buy is on these lists. In our country, such cases of fraud happen quite often, and all because many people who want to buy a car are irresponsible about the transaction. Until you are convinced of the legal purity of the transaction, you should not rush to draw up a purchase and sale agreement, even if the car has excellent characteristics and does not have any damage on the outside. It is very important to check if your car is on the list of stolen cars. Verification can be done in many ways. One of the easiest ways is to order a report on the Proverka-avto-po-vin.ru website.

Check the car by VIN code for accidents

Traffic police officers are required to check a car at the request of people, but in life this is not done often. After all, not every seller will allow you to get behind the wheel of his car and go to the nearest traffic police post (this is one of the reasons for his suspicion of fraud). Also, not all traffic police officers are willing to devote time to the drivers’ request, trying to explain this by the fact that the database freezes. There is still the opportunity to submit an application or use the options on the official website. But to submit an application, you must be present in person, and the official website requires a VIN number for verification. The reliable portal we offer allows you to quickly and easily identify a car by VIN number and license plate number.

Get a full vehicle report on accidents, registration and encumbrances online

Drawing up a report in electronic form requires much less time than searching for the relevant documents to submit to the traffic police department, without advertising personal data to employees and without showing distrust to the seller. The portal is able to obtain information from trusted sources for use. You will also find out information about the accident (if there were any), about the search by the customs service and about the condition of the pledge. The system works in such a way as to provide the buyer with reliable and complete information about the vehicle he is going to buy.