No person shall, with intent to prejudice, damage, injure, or defraud, acquire, possess, sell, or offer for sale any genuine or counterfeit…
california.public.law
If someone affixes a vin to a car that it was not originally assigned to, it is illegal. They run the risk of the car being seized for vin verification. If the inspector finds the secondary vins do not match, or have been removed, they will do one of two things: 1. Remove the dash vin & rivet a big “blue tag” vin tag (determined by the CHP, and not original) to the driver’s door jamb & stamp the tag overlapping onto the painted jamb...ugly. Or option 2. If they cannot establish the original vin, have the car crushed. Since I was a deputy sheriff, and not a CHP, I would have the car crushed. I did this several times, mostly Toyotas, Hondas, a Lexus suv, and a Porsche Turbo Carrera. No Mopars thankfully.
Usually (99.9%) the bad guy wants to get rid of the hot car and sells it to an unsuspecting or gullible buyer, that is the worst because there are two victims, the original owner lost his car and the buyer is out thousands.
So to protect yourself avoid salvaged vehicles, and always look at the dash vin, door tag, and other secondaries to see if they match. If not, or they have been removed, you are asking for big problems.
