(iSeeCars) – Buying a used car can be a stressful process, with questions about everything from a car’s accident history to its maintenance and care. If you’re buying a new vehicle from a dealership, you can be pretty confident it’s not a stolen car or one that has suffered a total loss from flood or accident damage. But when you’re buying a used car, whether from a dealer or private party, you should protect yourself with some basic due diligence before completing the transaction.

The key to understanding any car’s history, including past vehicle theft, starts with its vehicle identification number, or VIN. The VIN is a unique 17-digit number assigned to all U.S.-sold cars starting in 1981. Think of a vehicle’s VIN number as its fingerprint or DNA. It allows entities like the department of motor vehicles (DMV), auto insurance companies, and local police departments to track a car’s ownership history, location, and traffic violations.

A car’s VIN can also identify a stolen vehicle through a VIN check at the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) website. This is a free service that taps into car insurance theft claims and salvage vehicle records from over 1,200 insurance companies. An NICB VIN lookup may not uncover every instance of auto theft, but it’s an excellent (and once again, free!) step that only takes a few minutes.

You can also get an iSeeCars’ VIN check report, perform a title search through your state’s Department of Motor Vehicle, or use the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) to check for car theft or other red flags related to a car’s past. The iSeeCars VIN Report taps into the NMVTIS system, along with NHTSA safety and recall records, market valuation data, and other information sources to provide a comprehensive vehicle history report.

To locate a car’s VIN, check the driver’s door jamb area or the lower driver’s side of the dashboard when looking through the windshield. In many states, you can also get a vehicle’s VIN from its license plate number. 

With used car prices near record highs, car thieves have gotten more creative in recent years to try and cash in on these elevated values. Used vehicle buyers can protect themselves from stolen vehicle scams by using one of the above services and checking a car owner’s claims and documentation against any discrepancies found through a VIN check or vehicle history report.

More from iSeeCars.com:

• How to Spot a Flood Damaged Car
• Most Reliable Used Cars
• How to Get  a Free Original Car Window Sticker

About iSeeCars.com

iSeeCars.com is a data-driven car search and research company that helps shoppers find the best car deals by providing key insights and valuable resources, including the iSeeCars VIN Check report and Best Cars Rankings. iSeeCars has saved users over $434 million so far by applying big data analytics powered by over 25 billion (and growing) data points and using proprietary algorithms to objectively analyze, score and rank millions of new cars and used cars.

This article, How to Spot if a Car is Stolen for Free, originally appeared on iSeeCars.com.