NMVTIS is working and being used to stop illegal activities. More and more states, law enforcement, businesses, and other groups are finding the value in checking vehicles against NMVTIS.
In a recent incident, a large salvage operation identified two employees in their GA facilities that were reselling vehicles, the company was buying for their yards, “out the back door”. The company has a centralized purchasing group that buys cars from one location and arranges to have the vehicles sent to specific yards. The company has their system built where it automatically does the required GA state reporting and NMVTIS reporting at the time of purchase. The actual locations receiving the vehicles also get the titles to the vehicles. Two employees were working together and would find buyers for certain vehicles and sell them before they went through physical “processing” at the location they were received. The company buys lots of vehicles each month. The two had managed to sell 110 vehicles before being caught. They were caught when their buyers tried to re-register/title the vehicles so they could sell them to the public. Because of the prompt reporting, the VINs had been “cancelled” in the GA DMV’s database and also showed as “crushed” in NMVTIS (which means the vehicle was not intended for road use again). After several complaints to the DMV, the plot was discovered. The two employees were promptly let go and prosecuted and the company is working through the issues created by the two.
In another incident in Georgia, a law enforcement investigator had been given a lead on a salvage operation in eastern Georgia and wanted to follow up on it. In Georgia, salvage businesses are required to report to the state and the state reports those vehicles to NMVTIS and they are supposed to do the reporting within 48 hours of purchase. The officer had done some research before going to the site and had a list of the recent reported vehicles and rough volumes that were being done monthly. Armed with the information, the officer went to the site to do an inspection. At the site, the officer determined there were many more vehicles than he was showing being reported. Upon further searching, the officer found that the business was buying/getting stolen vehicles from South Carolina and Georgia, plus buying regular salvage vehicles and selling parts. With further physical investigation, there were two ocean going containers found buried in the back being used as “grow houses” for marijuana and the money made from the marijuana was being used to buy inventory for the salvage business. All in all, 98 stolen vehicles were found, 132 vehicles from South Carolina which were never reported, and 140 lbs of marijuana were impounded, plus money, guns and other items. The officer stated without the information up-front before entering the site, the “slick” owners might have been able to talk their way out of the further searches. The data was key in determining the need for a detailed site investigation.
There are instances every day where people are trying to pass salvage vehicles through state DMVs trying to “wash” or “clean” titles so they can sell the vehicles for bigger profits. With the help of NMVTIS reporting and more timely reporting, hundreds of vehicles are being caught before the fraud can occur. It is important to make sure that any reporting to the systems is accurate, as it creates a time-consuming headache trying to fix a vehicle that was reported in error, but more times than not, the reports to NMVTIS are correct and are stopping frauds every day.
For more information about NMVTIS, email info@add123.com or call one of our friendly and knowledgeable customer service representatives at 855-300-3455 . Se habla español.