Is it okay to give out your car;s VIN number?

[3DisneyBuggs]

I put our Sienna on craiglist and someine emailed asking for the VIN. I guess it''s for carfax but it is ok to give out the VIN. I mean is there any scam that can be done with a VIN #? Call me paranoid, but these days anything is suspicious.

 

[UnderTheMistletoe]

Jeez... I don't know. My initial reaction was the same as yours.

Is there anyway you can print the CarFax information for the inquirer without having to disclose the exact information to him/her? For me, I don't think I'd give that information unless I knew this was a serious buyer and not a looky-loo or something more sinister. How sad is it that we don't feel we can trust one another any more?

 

[Deb & Bill]

Check out this from Snopes.com:

http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/vin.asp

 

[salmoneous]

I put our Sienna on craiglist and someine emailed asking for the VIN. I guess it''s for carfax but it is ok to give out the VIN. I mean is there any scam that can be done with a VIN #? Call me paranoid, but these days anything is suspicious.

Keep in mind your VIN is easily visible to anyone looking in your car, so it's not like the biggest secret in the world.

 

[DaisyD]

The future buyers want to check the vin to see if it was in any accidents. We gave ours out and had no problems. The buyer was able to see the clean record it had and bought our van.