Why hide the VIN #?

[Arctic_White]

I'm genuinely curious to find out why some posters hide the last three digits of the VIN # but show the prior three digits. For example: 703xxx

What purpose does it serve? It is not as if someone can take the last 6 digits and generate the VIN... right?

 

[Vines]

One thing you can do by knowing someones VIN number is make complaints to the NHSTA.

They require no other confirmation of a complaint, so I have heard of them collect VINS so they can lodge fake complaints.

 

[MP3Mike]

It is not as if someone can take the last 6 digits and generate the VIN... right?

You pretty much can. The only information you would be missing is the model year and performance/AWD/RWD. But it would be easy enough to figure out which of those was correct. (Assuming of course they didn't share that information as well.)

 

[CharleyBC]

Of course, you can always collect all the VINs you want just by wandering through a parking lot.

The day we took delivery of Wattney almost two years ago, it was good I knew our VIN. They tried at first to deliver me the wrong car, a twin parked right beside ours. I glanced at the windshield VIN and redirected the rep.

 

[Arctic_White]

One thing you can do by knowing someones VIN number is make complaints to the NHSTA.

They require no other confirmation of a complaint, so I have heard of them collect VINS so they can lodge fake complaints.

Seems like they have no life. LOL.

I'm talking about posting the VINs here, in this community. For ex: my VIN ends in 738890. How can someone use this information against me? Can they somehow hack my car?

 

[brkaus]

I’m guessing to hide identity from Tesla.

 

[jelloslug]

One thing you can do by knowing someones VIN number is make complaints to the NHSTA.

They require no other confirmation of a complaint, so I have heard of them collect VINS so they can lodge fake complaints.

You don't need someones VIN to make a fake complaint. You can easily just make one up based off of an existing VIN.

 

[holmgang]

Same reason you don't publicly advertise other information yourself, no matter how easily exposed they are.

Your real life name, for example, is in itself not really a confidential thing. But you dont parade that around the internet.

In my country, you can do a public search for VIN or license plate number, and track it back to the owners name and lien (if they have one)

 

[MP3Mike]

For ex: my VIN ends in 738890.

So is your full VIN 5YJ3E1EA5LF738890?

 

[Arctic_White]

So is your full VIN 5YJ3E1EA5LF738890?

Close but nope.

 

[trm2]

So is your full VIN 5YJ3E1EA5LF738890?

Close but nope.

so not a 2020. 5YJ3E1EA7KF738890 Perhaps?


It really doesn’t matter anyway.

 

[Arctic_White]

so not a 2020. 5YJ3E1EA7KF738890 Perhaps?


It really doesn’t matter anyway.

Close, but not quite. LOL.

It seems to me that the last six digits are important but even if you do know these, you cannot derive the entire VIN.

There is a special character in the middle which is a filler. So even if you do know the year, trim, etc., you still have 24 guesses to find out what the entire VIN is.

 

[MP3Mike]

There is a special character in the middle which is a filler. So even if you do know the year, trim, etc., you still have 24 guesses to find out what the entire VIN is.

You don't have to guess, there is a formula to calculate the check digit.

 

[trm2]

Close, but not quite. LOL.

It seems to me that the last six digits are important but even if you do know these, you cannot derive the entire VIN.

There is a special character in the middle which is a filler. So even if you do know the year, trim, etc., you still have 24 guesses to find out what the entire VIN is.

It is the check digit (9 th digit of vin) and there are not 24 choices. The check digit must be 1 through 9 or X.

 

[Adam3]

For ex: my VIN ends in 738890.

Thank you, your car is now in route to my house.

 

[CapeOne]

Although not absolutely required, full VINs are typically included on many car selling sites such as Autotrader, CarGurus, etc. including private sale listings.

You can also often get full VIN by having license plate information (state and number). Of course, many people cover their license plates in online pictures too.

 

[jjrandorin]

Same reason you don't publicly advertise other information yourself, no matter how easily exposed they are.

Your real life name, for example, is in itself not really a confidential thing. But you dont parade that around the internet.

In my country, you can do a public search for VIN or license plate number, and track it back to the owners name and lien (if they have one)

I think its more along the lines of what @holmgang is saying. The same reason people dont (tend) to use their real name in an internet forum (although there are plenty of user names here that look like real names). When you buy a home, that is public information, so if someone looks up your address in a local registrar, they can find who owns it, but you typically dont go around posting your home address.

When you take your car into tesla, or call them about it, they will sometimes ask you for the last 6 of your vin. Having the last 6 of a vin, along with someones name etc, could possibly be used in "social engineering". Since there is no gain at ALL from posting your vin (it doesnt help anyone, tesla doesnt assign vins exactly sequentially, etc), there is no point in "over sharing".

TL ; DR version...

No benefit by posting it because the information doesnt help anyone, yet the information can possibly be used as one more piece of information that someone ELSE could use to prove that they are "you".

 

[PoitNarf]

Back when you could still get a federal tax credit it was important to try and keep your VIN private. I’ve heard of some instances where scammers claimed the tax credit for themselves for vehicles they did not own. Ended up being a mess for the real owner of the vehicle when they tried to claim the credit.

Anyway why share the complete VIN with anyone? Blocking out the last 2 digits like I do in my signature is sufficient enough to make some educated guesses or conclusions about my Model 3. Same with just listing my location in my profile as just NJ and not including the city. People tend to over share in this age of social media. I always will err on the side of caution and keep as much personal or identifying info off of the Internet as I possibly can.

 

[JHamCell]

I'm genuinely curious to find out why some posters hide the last three digits of the VIN # but show the prior three digits. For example: 703xxx

What purpose does it serve? It is not as if someone can take the last 6 digits and generate the VIN... right?

To me it's a case of why do it? instead of why not?

What benefit comes from posting all digits?