A Calgary man got a shocking discovery when he went into a local dealership to sell his car: he was told he wasn’t the only registered owner.
Rick Barvir told Global News the CARFAX vehicle history report showed his vehicle’s identification number, or VIN, was also registered by someone in Ontario in 2018.
But the bad news didn’t end there. He was also told the vehicle’s status was listed as “salvaged” in 2019.
“CARFAX said it had been salvaged in Ontario,” he told Global News. “(This car has) never been in Ontario.”
Barvir said it doesn’t make sense since he’d owned his 2003 Maserati Spyder convertible since 2013. He gathered all of his documents, went to the registry twice and even got his VIN checked by Calgary police, but added CARFAX still refused to listen to him.
“They just said you have to clear it from Ontario Transportation before we’ll even change the report,” he said he was told. “So I have to jump through all the hoops? What is CARFAX doing?”
“I have all the proof from day one of the car being registered. What is their proof?”
Barvir then started the long process of getting a hold of someone in Ontario who could help him.
He received a letter back from the ministry of transportation stating his car’s VIN was indeed registered to someone else. He was told “If you believe someone has fraudulently registered a vehicle that is in your possession, this matter should be registered with one of the Ontario Police Departments.”
When we asked what he believed happened, he said he had no proof, but he had a theory.
“I think someone stole the VIN number, registered it in Ontario, made up a fake bill of sale to get the insurance, and they wrote it off,” Barvir added. “And no one checked into it.”
“Don’t be surprised. This can happen to anyone.
“I can’t believe that there is no way you can track this across Canada with the technology we have.”
Alberta’s Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT) told Global News this is a growing problem across Canada.
An ALERT officer said VINs are often stolen or cloned so that vehicles can be used in various crimes. It’s especially challenging, the investigator said, because provincial registry systems don’t “speak to each other” in many ways. So, ultimately it can be very easy for a vehicle to be registered in two or more provinces with no one knowing.
ALERT is one of many law enforcement agencies lobbying various governments to get this changed.
As for Barvir’s CARFAX report, the company investigated again.
“CARFAX Canada cannot change data on the reports, our commitment to transparency is to display the data as is from the source – only the source can change it (which would then update the data on the vehicle history report),” CARFAX said in a statement.
Officials went on to state they are happy to support Barvir again through an investigation process.
Ontario Transportation would not discuss his case with us, and the other party that also registered the vehicle did not respond to our calls for comment.