What The DMV Won’t Tell You
Always visit dmv.org before going to the DMV.
1. Why does everything take four visits and roughly three hours of standing in line to a DMV prolem fixed. The problem? Everything from not bringing enough or the right forms of ID to having his records confused with those of another driver of the same name. Making sense of the DMV is an $11.5 million business for DMV.org, an unofficial guide to state rules and peccadilloes.
2. Remember those pics of flooded car lots after Hurricane Katrina? You could end up buying one of those cars today and never know it. In the past five years, the number of flooded cars sold as “used” has doubled nationwide. Unscrupulous sellers can buy them at auction, then replace the title at a Department of Motor Vehicles office in another state by fudging the document, saying it’s lost or retitling in a state that doesn’t recognize “flooded” as totaled. If you’re buying a used car, always have a mechanic inspect it first. And screen the car’s VIN through the free database at carfax.com/flood.
3. There’s another way criminals take advantage of flimsy DMV car records: “VIN cloning,” a kind of vehicle laundering. A stolen car’s vehicle-identification number is switched with that of a junked car, and a clean title is obtained from the DMV. To combat this practice, the 1992 Anti-Car Theft Act authorized the creation of a database, known as the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, which allows state DMVs to verify a car’s title, theft and damage history before issuing a new title. Too bad only 30 states belong to the network.
4. Identity theft is the No. 1 crime in the U.S. The simplest form, mostly used by beginners, is to ask the DMV for a duplicate license in someone else’s name. Identity thieves simply tell the DMV clerk that they’ve lost their license or that it was stolen, then provide someone else’s illegally obtained information. It’s a simple con to pull off.
5. Personalized license plates might seem like a harmless accessory, but they could make you a more likely target for criminals. Why? Because they communicate much more than the written message. The downside of doing things that tend to ‘get you noticed’ is that they can get you noticed by the wrong kind of people. Rapists, thieves and muggers.
For the rest of the list, click here.
