Whether the car is in an accident. How to check a car by VIN before buying

For any motorist who wants to buy a car, this point is quite important. In the modern world, checking is quite simple vehicle to the road traffic incident. With the help of this information, a person can find out what the damage was, but also the degree of its complexity. With the help of a traffic accident check, you can even get photographs from the scene of the collision.

Checking whether a car was involved in an accident

With their help, the following data is determined:

  • how severe the damage was;
  • how badly the body was damaged;
  • what is the degree of damage to the chassis, as well as the engine.

You will be able to obtain all the necessary information on checking a car for an accident if similar incidents have been recorded. A full check of the vehicle takes place using all databases of insurance companies, as well as the State Safety Inspectorate traffic. In it you can get all the necessary information about the damage to the car and why the traffic accident occurred. The accident could have occurred due to a failure of the internal components of the machine. This information will greatly help you when purchasing a vehicle.

Doing such a check is quite simple. There is nothing complicated here. Before you buy a car, you should definitely check it for an accident.

On the Internet, the requests “check the traffic police” and “check the car for an accident” are very common.

Buying a car on secondary market is associated with some risk: the car may be in collateral or be restored after an accident. In this article I will tell you how not to buy a pig in a poke and check the vehicle for legal cleanliness and accidents before drawing up a sales contract. Moreover, this can be done both free and quickly, but for a small fee.

We just need access to the Internet and government. car number (you can find it out from the seller by phone or look at the photos of the car). If you want to feel like a super agent and know everything in advance, then you need to get the full name and date of birth of the potential seller.

1. Checking the car for an accident according to the state. number

In fact, the traffic police took care of motorists a long time ago and developed a convenient car checking service https://gibdd.rf/check/auto/. Here you can get free complete and reliable information about registration actions, traffic accidents, prohibitions and restrictions related to the car.

The only problem is that you need a VIN code to run the check. Therefore, if you choose a car remotely, for example through Avito, or the seller does not have documents with a VIN in his hands, the traffic police website will be useless. But there is one “trick” that will help us a lot - knowing the state number of the car, we can easily get the VIN code!

The State Traffic Inspectorate will tell us a lot of interesting things. For example, registration history:

What can you learn from this example? Firstly, the car has been traveling around Russia since 2003. Secondly, she changed many owners. Frequent “re-registration” at short intervals may indicate that there is a “jamb” in the car, which, when identified, each subsequent owner tries to get rid of the car as quickly as possible. This, at a minimum, should alert you, or better yet, serve as a reason to leave this option"on the shelf"

In our example, the car is not wanted, but restrictions are imposed on it - a ban registration actions. Until this entry disappears, you don’t even have to talk about buying this car with the seller. The seller has a debt recognized by the court and is being executed by the bailiffs. This could be mortgage debt, or maybe car loan debt.

Remember at the beginning of the article I talked about super agents? I hope you already know the name of the seller...

3. We break the seller into debt

Everything is simple here, go to the website Federal service bailiffs http://fssprus.ru and enter the seller’s data into the form:

Click the “Find” button and enjoy your powerful results:

In the example, issuance by full name without date of birth. The more data, the more accurate the result. What is worth paying attention to here? First, look for the presence of writs of execution against the seller - if there are many of them, then restrictions may be imposed on the car. It will be difficult to register such a car with the traffic police. Secondly, pay attention to the number of traffic police fines.

4. Checking the car for fines

If you have the registration certificate number and the state license plate of the car, you can find out all the ins and outs about the fines of its owner using the resource https://traffic police.rf/check/fines/.

Perhaps our seller is a fan of “driving”, and this leads to an assumption about how the car was operated. In addition, if there are a large number of unpaid fines (depending on the traffic police department and the subject of the Russian Federation), a problem may arise when deregistering the car.

5. We look to see if the car is pledged

In order to check whether a car is pledged, you need to open the website of the register of pledges of the Federal Notary Chamber: https://www.reestr-zalogov.ru/search/index

On this site we will be interested in the “Find in the registry” item. Next, select the search tab “By information about the subject of collateral”, enter the vehicle VIN in the input field and click the “Find” button. If the search returns an empty result, then everything is fine and the car is not pledged.

Comprehensive verification through a paid service

You can also obtain detailed information about the history of ownership and operation of a particular vehicle through the paid service “Autocode”.

The official service can provide a complete and accurate report on any car operating in the Russian Federation, by VIN, chassis number or state registration plate. In addition to information from the traffic police databases, you can find out there:

  • Number of owners
  • Mileage
  • Checking databases for theft and accidents
  • Use as a taxi
  • Customs history


Currently, the cost of preparing a report in this service is 349 rubles.

We told you about all the ways to break into a car. We hope that you will come across only legally clean cars and honest sellers.

Reading time: 9 min.

Official website of the Russian State Traffic Safety Inspectorate - online services for motorists

⚡️The official website of the Russian State Traffic Safety Inspectorate allows you to check unpaid traffic fines, check a car by VIN code for prohibited registration and check your driver's license for deprivation. It also publishes traffic rules changes and contacts of departments in cities of the Russian Federation.

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Traffic police website checking fines

On the official website of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, you can check fines by car number and vehicle registration certificate number. Checking fines by last name or driver's license is not carried out.

A postal notice with a copy of the decision from the traffic police may not reach the addressee or may arrive with a delay, when the period of validity of the fifty percent discount has already expired. Therefore the most reliable way control fines - check them online.

It is important to know!

When you check your fines online, you will not only receive the most up-to-date information about your unpaid fines, but you will also be able to subscribe to notices of fines by email or SMS. If you are discharged new fine, you will immediately receive a notification and have time to pay for it while the discount is valid.

The fine must be paid within 60 days from the date of the decision. If, after 70 days from the date of the decision, the fine remains unpaid, information about it is transmitted to the bailiffs, who initiate enforcement proceedings. Also, traffic police officers and bailiffs regularly raid fine debtors. Defaulters are detained on the road and forcibly brought to court.

For late payment of fines, a motorist faces:

  1. Administrative arrest
  2. Blocking bank accounts and cards
  3. Ban on traveling abroad
  4. Seizure of property
  5. Deprivation driver's license
  6. Announcement in federal wanted list
  7. Bailiffs' appeal to the employer


Checking a car by VIN code

The official website of the traffic police is useful when buying both a new and used car. Through the website you can check the car's history by VIN number.

What is a VIN number?

VIN number is a unique vehicle code consisting of 17 characters.

You can find it out either from the vehicle registration certificate (both old and new), or from the plate under the hood. The VIN code of the car never changes.

Why check your car history:

  • PTS authentication;
  • Verification of the identity of the previous owners of the car;
  • Checking the facts of road accidents;
  • Checking whether a car is wanted;
  • Checking restrictions on registration with the traffic police (arrest, deposit in a bank).

According to statistics from the automotive media for 2017, up to 50% of transactions with used cars in large cities of Russia have fraudulent characteristics. The seller and buyer do not draw up a full package of documents, do not have contracts certified by a notary, and do not check the car for legal purity. Unsecured sales transactions can later lead to seizure of property and loss of invested money.

Common fraud schemes on the Russian secondary car market

Scheme name The essence of deception How to protect yourself?
1. Deposit The seller demands an urgent advance payment and disappears with the money. Do not give money without inspecting and checking the car.
2. Floating price The price of the car is slightly lower than the market, but at the time of payment additional price tags appear, or the purchase and sale agreement is drawn up for a different amount. Take your time and draw up a home purchase agreement. Check all documents.
3. Foreign number Nice car, at a price below the market, sold with license plates of Belarus or Kazakhstan. In fact, it will not be possible to register it and drive it legally in Russia. With the exception of rare cases associated with unique car models, do not buy cars with license plates from other states.
4. Gray outbid schemes The car is sold not by the owner, but by a reseller. Often the signatures in the purchase and sale agreement are fake, a duplicate appears instead of the title, and the amounts in the agreement are underestimated. A car purchased under this scheme may be seized. Check the names of the car owners according to the title and the person selling the car.
5. Car double A good option: fresh year, no accidents at a low price. Checking by VIN code shows complete cleanliness and absence of encumbrances. The purchase and sale agreement is drawn up at the meeting. However, the seller refuses to go to the traffic police under various pretexts. When you try to register, it turns out that a car with this VIN code is already in the database. The purchased duplicate car is seized. Get the previous owner to appear at the traffic police to re-register the car.
6. Purchase and sale agreement for several persons A law-abiding seller sells a car under a sales contract, receives money and leaves. Later he is asked to rewrite the contract for another person. At the end of the story, the first buyer, threatening court and criminal prosecution, tries to return the money for the car that was allegedly not sold to him. Draw up a vehicle acceptance certificate. Keep voice recordings of conversations. Fill out the DCP with a notary.
7. Photos of passport and bank card The scammer contacts the victim by phone and offers to buy a car. An excuse is invented why this cannot be done immediately. But the criminal declares that he is ready to transfer a large deposit to the victim’s card as proof of his intentions. To make a payment, a photo of a bank card and passport is requested. Having all the necessary information, the scammers either “cleanse” the bank card or issue a loan using the sent copy of the passport. Do not send card and passport details to strangers.
8. Two keys for theft The thieves are ordered a specific model and color of the car. The option is in used car advertisements. Over the phone, a person posing as a buyer asks about the presence of car keys. A whole group of people comes to inspect the vehicle. While some distract the owner, others make a digital copy of the key. Then the car is monitored and stolen at the first opportunity. Don't show the car alone. Keep track of the keys. Be wary if you are asked about two keys.
9. Exchange of cars under two sales contracts The initiator of the exchange proposes to formalize the transaction through two sales and purchase agreements. Later, legal problems arise with one of the cars, but it is difficult to reverse the situation, since the transactions are not interrelated. You should avoid drawing up two DCTs when exchanging cars for each other.
10. Purchase by proxy Selling a car by proxy is a sign of problems in the past with the car. Most likely the car was stolen, is in pledge or under arrest. Do not purchase cars by proxy.
11. Wrong year, wrong characteristics A fraudster places an advertisement for the sale of a car with inflated specifications. Indicated best year, a rich set of options and a different engine size. The bet is on the rush to sell, in which there will be no time left to check the details. Carefully check the information from the advertisement and the properties of the offered car. Look for any inconsistencies.

Most of the situations described can be avoided by checking the car online using the database on the official website of the Russian State Traffic Safety Inspectorate. The very mention of a possible check in a conversation with a suspicious buyer or seller can stop scammers.

Once you have selected the car you are interested in, call the owner. Ask everything that is written in the ad: year, color, condition, availability of options and number of owners. Immediately warn the author of the ad about upcoming checks at a car service (running, engine compression, errors and twisted mileage) and legal purity. Already at this stage, obvious scammers can eliminate themselves.

At the meeting, carefully inspect the car for damage, check the functionality of all existing electronics. Carefully examine the rubber, steering wheel, floor mats and handles for abrasions, which should correspond to the stated mileage. Ask the owner to provide the VIN code and check the car directly from the phone on the official website of the traffic police.


Checking a driver's license for authenticity and deprivation

On the official website of the Russian State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, you can check your driver’s license for deprivation and authenticity online. To do this, just enter the series, number and date of issue of the document into the appropriate fields.

In what cases is a driver's license verification required?

Recruitment– the employer is directly responsible for compliance with the law by its employees. An accident caused by a hired driver who has been deprived of his license (or has no driver’s license at all) will result in a criminal case against the owners and managers of the business.

Registration of the Europrotocol– Small accidents in Russia can be registered without calling the traffic police. To do this, you just need to draw up a diagram, sign consent on the part of the culprit and send the papers to insurance company However, there is a nuance. If the driver's licenses of those involved in the accident are invalid, no payment will be made. Therefore, before drawing up a European protocol, you should check the driver’s license for deprivation and authenticity through the traffic police website.

Upon restoration of rights– It happens that criminals use a lost driver’s license. Fraudsters are identified and the document issued in your name is canceled by the police. Unfortunately, at the same time, those rights that are in your pocket also lose their validity. If you have lost and regained your license, it makes sense to check your driving license before each long trip.

Why is a driver's license revoked in Russia 2020?

You can lose your rights for a period of one month to several years for:

  • Driving without license plates or with false license plates;
  • An ambulance, fire or police car that was not allowed through;
  • Wrong way railway;
  • Entering the oncoming lane;
  • Driving against the flow on the road with one way traffic;
  • Repeatedly driving through an intersection on a red light within a year;
  • Illegal special signals (flashing lights);
  • (more than 70 days);
  • Leaving the scene of an accident;


Traffic rules changes 2020

Buying a new car is not a cheap pleasure, so Russians still prefer to make purchases on the secondary market. Based on the results of 2016, transactions with used cars exceeded sales of car dealers by almost 4 times (5.3 million and 1.4 million). But those who want to save money need to remember that buying a used car involves many risks.

And the most common of them is the purchase of a vehicle after an accident, the consequences of which were carefully retouched by the seller. Only motorists with extensive experience can visually calculate this fact, but for beginners, fortunately, there are now several available ways checking cars for accidents.

○ Visual inspection.

Not the most reliable method of examination for road accidents, since those used for repairs and painting modern technologies are capable of almost 100% eliminating all visual imperfections. But you should not neglect this stage.

For a successful visual inspection, it is important to create the right environment:

  • Good lighting (daylight or bright artificial).
  • A clean car to prevent any dirt from masking damage to the body.
  • Enough time, as in a hurry you can miss important details.

It is good to involve a person knowledgeable in car repairs for the inspection. If this is not possible, study the car yourself by following this algorithm:

  1. Examine the coating for any deformations. It is convenient to inspect the side surfaces while squatting. Pay special attention to the roof and hood.
  2. Examine the joints of the parts; they should be uniform in width throughout their entire length.
  3. If you suspect the presence of putty, apply a magnet wrapped in cloth to the questionable area. Its fall will reveal an impressive layer of coating.
  4. Check the door mechanisms. If the geometry of the body part is violated, the opening and closing of doors will be accompanied by extraneous sounds.
  5. Inspect the body parts; they should be uniform in color and without traces of the previous paint.
  6. Find the stamps on the glass and check their production dates.

Even if no visible signs of an accident were found, the car’s history is still worth checking using special services. The easiest way to do this is using its unique code.

○ Check for accidents using VIN code.

The VIN code is assigned to the vehicle by the manufacturer. This is a unique seventeen-digit number consisting of numbers and Latin letters. Each of its symbols carries a specific meaning - an indication of the country and plant, year of manufacture, type of vehicle, body number. When inspecting a car in person, you should not rely on the words of the seller, but rather find the VIN code yourself.

Typically the number is located on one of the following parts of the car:

  • Under the hood.
  • Under the driver's seat.
  • On the driver's side door.
  • On the windshield.
  • In the trunk.
  • On the tires of the front wheels.

Having a VIN code, you can find out comprehensive information about the vehicle, including its participation in an accident. Many online services have been created for these purposes. The most popular of them:

  1. Autocode. The service allows you to obtain information about all former and existing owners of the car, its actual mileage, accidents and repairs performed, use as a taxi, whether it was pawned or stolen, and many other important points. The report is generated based on the databases of the traffic police, FSSP, credit institutions and insurance companies.
  2. VinRu. The report is generated using state databases. authorities of 3 states at once - Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
  3. AutoDNA. The leading service for checking car histories from the USA and Europe, operating since 2010.

In principle, you can use any of the services presented on the network, since they all provide reports that are similar in composition. It is much more important to verify the authenticity of the VIN code you have.

✔ Fake VIN code.

Falsification of the VIN code is most often carried out with the aim of legalizing a stolen car. But unscrupulous sellers who want to hide the fact that the car was involved in an accident can also take this step. Fraudsters use several methods:

  1. Interrupting characters by drawing additional elements, or filling excess elements with a polymer mixture.
  2. Applying putty to the location of the code on the body and then painting it over.
  3. Applying metal to the marked area, leveling it using metalworking and engraving a new code on this place.
  4. Cutting out individual characters and their subsequent installation in a different sequence, or upside down (for example, numbers 6 and 9).

You can check the authenticity of the code using the same online services. In addition, the VIN code located on the car’s elements is necessarily duplicated in its technical documentation. Inconsistencies can be identified by simply checking the documents.

For counterfeiting an identification number, the seller faces criminal liability.

Clause 1 of Article 326 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

  • “Falsification or destruction of an identification number is punishable by a fine of up to eighty thousand rubles or in the amount wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to six months, or compulsory labor for a term of up to three hundred sixty hours, or correctional labor for a term of up to one year, or restriction of liberty for a term of up to two years, or forced labor for a term of up to two years, or imprisonment for the same period."

○ Checking a car for an accident at the traffic police or through the traffic police website.

All services for checking the VIN code draw information about what happened to car accident from the State Traffic Inspectorate database. Therefore, it would be more logical to turn to the original source. In addition, unlike third-party services, checking on the site is free. There are two ways to obtain information from the traffic police database:

  • Through a visit to the State Traffic Inspectorate office.
  • Using the service on the official Internet resource of the traffic police.

With the first method everything is simple, so let’s take a closer look at the online verification mechanism.

To check a car for an accident, you must perform the following steps:

  1. Go to the main page of the State Traffic Inspectorate website.
  2. In the "Services" section, select "Vehicle Check".
  3. In the Vin/Body/Chassis line, enter your code.
  4. From the check options presented below the line, select “Check for participation in road traffic accidents.”
  5. Click Request Review.

After entering the captcha, you will be provided with a report on the car’s involvement in an accident. But it must be taken into account that this database was formed only in 2015, and does not contain information about previous accidents. In addition, it is possible to calculate only those accidents that were recorded by a police officer and registered with the federal authorities.

○ Check for road accidents through an insurance company.

Insurance organizations have a common database where all data on insured events that occurred in relation to cars are entered. Having in hand information about the insurance policy of the purchased car, you can contact your insurer for information about the accident. A copy insurance policy You can ask the seller, or find out information about it using the service of the Russian Union of Auto Insurers. To do this, you will need the vehicle's VIN code, its register sign, as well as body and chassis numbers.

○ Check for accidents through the State Services website.

The State Services website accumulates information from the databases of all government departments of the Russian Federation. Here you can find information about the participation of the car in an accident, as well as about its registration, owners, and various restrictions. But the service also has a significant drawback - a complex registration procedure, which involves an authorization procedure through a personal visit to any of the state. authorities, or a code received by mail. If you have not previously registered on the portal, then it will be easier to register your car using any of the other services.

You can get the necessary information on the State Services website in the “Transport and Driving” section; for this you will need the VIN code and registration plate number.

○ Check at a service station.

When purchasing a new car, a service card is issued for it, in which all marks on technical inspections and repair work will be recorded. You can request such a card from the seller to get acquainted with the history Maintenance cars. It wouldn’t hurt to visit a service station to have the vehicle diagnosed.

However, visiting a service center official dealer has a number of disadvantages:

  • There is a high probability of establishing friendly relations between the car owner and the service employees, who, in his interests, may “not notice” significant shortcomings.
  • Computer diagnostics, which is practiced in such services, may not be enough to make an objective assessment.
  • You will not be able to find out the adequate amount needed for repairs, since official prices service centers higher than in conventional service stations.

For these reasons, it is better to give the car for an accident examination and assessment technical condition to an independent service center.

A VIN check confirms that the car has no problems from a legal point of view. Such cars inspire more confidence and, accordingly, sell faster. Any person who wants to make inquiries about the condition of a particular car can check a car using its VIN code.

Car owners who want to sell them quickly may hide some problems in their work technical device or other unpleasant moments. In order not to give money for useless hardware, you should inquire in advance about the details of the car you are looking at.

Where to find a car's VIN code

VIN code is called registration number, assigned to the vehicle. It represents a combination of 17 characters, which are applied to a separate plate attached to the chassis or body part. Each of these combinations is individual.

The number can also be found in the car’s registration certificate - it is entered there in mandatory. The code consists of numbers and Latin letters.

Checking the car for prohibited registration actions:

All standard vehicle data is freely available. Using the VIN code, you can find out the year the car was manufactured, engine size and number, power and other characteristics. Using the check by VIN code, you can find out the following information:

  • How many owners has this car had?
  • Is the car listed as stolen or pawned?
  • Is there a ban on registration actions?
  • Has the car been in an accident or accident?

It is worth noting that the last point can only be clarified if the accident has been registered. If for some reason the incident was not recorded, there will be no information about it in the databases.

Why do you need to check a car by VIN and state license? number

To find out the history of any car, you don't need any complicated steps. You can visit and, using a special code, find out basic information about any car.

This can be very important - the owner of a car who is planning to sell it does not always talk about everything frankly. If there are any problems with the documents, for example, incorrect registration, this can lead to problems during registration.

It happens that the license plate of a vehicle is interrupted, the signs on the frame are not readable, the engine number is missing. As a result of unqualified repairs or an accident, the geometry of the body may become bent, which can provoke an accident.

In progress carrying out verification will be collected in parts information from all sources, available to the State Traffic Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. This includes Insurance companies, And commercial structures.

From the received data, a single report is generated containing the maximum possible amount of information. The user receives all information regarding the car of interest online. It is also possible to receive a copy of the left report by email.

By checking all available information in advance, you will protect yourself from problems that you may acquire along with the car.

Check your car using the traffic police VIN code for free

The easiest and most reliable way to do this is to check using the official website of the traffic police. The car will be checked against several official databases, and matches will be searched in different sources.

Maintenance reports are being checked, so real mileage can be found out without any problems.

To carry out the check, you need to go to the website of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate.RF, then you need to go to the section called “Services”.

In it, go to the “Vehicle check” tab and enter the registration number of the car.


Select the type of information you need. Under each type there will be a special button for making a request. Enter the verification code - results can be obtained in a few minutes, but more often the procedure takes seconds.

Verification may be requested in cases where the numbers exactly match. If the numbers are entered incorrectly during the request, you will not be able to get the correct result. The information obtained as a result will help you avoid getting into an unpleasant situation.

If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl+Enter.