I am looking at purchasing a 2007 Vehicle with 29k on the clock for one of my children. I did a car fax and the only records available are the owner purchased it new in January 2007. The Owner was NICB. Searching I found this to be the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

The first owner NICB owned the vehicle from new till May 2017. The second owner purchased it and is trying to flip it.

No service records are available via Car Fax and the new owner does not know the vehicles history.

I get the impression this was a Government owned vehicle. Good? Bad? Stay Away? It has low mileage and looks in good condition.

Any forum members have any experience with this scenario?

 

Bait Car......

 

Not sure what to make of it. Almost all Federal agencies, military branches etc obtain their administrative use vehicles via the Government Services Administration, GSA. GSA disposes of these vehicle once mileage and/or age parameters are met. They are sold directly by GSA. As far as Carfax GSA would be listed as the original owner, not the agency using it. Also GSA contracts service operations through local businesses such as Goodyear, Firestone, Sears etc. which may or may not upload info to Carfax. Carfax is only useful if someone uses it. It's not a requirement. As for your prospective vehicle any agency utilized vehicle will most likely have had many different operators. Sometimes this is not as god as a sole operated vehicle, sometimes. As with any used vehicle purchase having it inspected by a competent mechanic is your best bet to determine condition and serviceability. Good luck.

 

Stay away. The vehicle's cloudy history may come back to bite you. As in being impounded as evidence for who knows what action this mystery agency took. Just my .02 but I wouldn't want the potential drama. Lots of vehicle's out there keep looking.

 

Don't want to seem naïve but what is a bait car?

 

Have a drug sniffing dog do it a once over.

 

What I have learned so far by finding other similar vehicles previously purchased new direct from the manufacturer that the NICB is a crime prevention authority mostly dealing with Insurance Fraud.

I've found 3 of the exact same vehicles for sale in different parts of the country. Color match & Mileage real close. I've contacted each of the dealers and they tell me the same story. The vehicle was an NICB Organization fleet vehicle who's criteria is any vehicle reaching 30k on the clock gets auctioned/sold off.
I found one 2010 vehicle in CA with an extensive Car Fax report from Oil Changes every 3k to tires and check ups over it's life. All serviced by a local manufacturer dealer.

I'm learning more

 

They are usually cars given to detectives by the insurance comapanies to be used to investigate insurance crimes. I wouldn't worry about it, unless it was an actual markwd police car. Our Detective cars get treated fairly gently and serviced regularly. But if it's an impala stay away in general!! Lots of transmission issues from what I have seen.

 

The bait car, often filled with valuable items to draw attention to it, is typically parked in a high auto-theft area. In some cases, the vehicle may be simply left unlocked with the keys in the ignition.[2] If the car is set up to catch car thieves, when the car is stolen officers are immediately alerted, and can monitor the vehicle and send commands to control it such as disabling the engine, locking the doors or honking the horn. Live audio/video streaming devices may be installed allowing law enforcement personnel to determine how many suspects are in the car, what they are planning and if they are armed.[3] If the bait car is set up to catch thieves who steal items from cars, it may be monitored by video from a central location. The bait property, such as a tool kit or gym bag, will also be set up so it can be tracked and monitored.
Bait cars can be used as part of a honey trap, a form of sting operation, in which criminals not known to the police are lured into exposing themselves. Unlike a sting operation that targets a known or suspected criminal, a honey trap establishes a general lure to attract unknown criminals. Bait cars are not considered entrapment because they merely afford criminals the opportunity to steal the car; entrapment, on the other hand, constitutes law enforcement persuading or encouraging a person to commit a crime that they would not have committed otherwise

 

Sounds like a scam. More than likely they will want to ship it to you. But send money first.
I was looking at a car before and got this response.
Will ship as soon as money in here by wire transfer.
Told the guy wanted to inspect car myself before shipping and would fly to were ever it was.
He told me he was on deployment and car was on military base.
Told him I have access to military base via ID.
No other emails came back

 

What is the make model and year ? What is the price

 

07 Ford for $11k

 

NICB isn't a government agency, it's a non-profit formed by the insurance industry. Have you considered calling them with the VIN and seeing if they have records?

 

Haha right