How to track vehicles through open source investigations?

Vehicles play a vital role in modern society, not only as part of people's daily lives, but also sometimes closely linked to criminal, security and investigative activities. Investigating the background of vehicles through open source intelligence can be used to locate missing persons, track stolen vehicles, investigate criminal activities, and prevent potential security threats. In this article, we will describe how open source information can be used to find vehicle records and obtain information about vehicles.

VIN, known as Vehicle Identification Number, is a string of unique identification codes assigned by automobile manufacturers to identify the identity and attributes of each vehicle. This code usually consists of 17 characters and contains information about the vehicle's manufacturer, model, year of production, serial number, etc. It is used to identify the vehicle during sales, maintenance, etc. The VIN can be found in different parts of the vehicle, such as under the front windshield, engine, etc.

VRM, known as Vehicle Registration Mark, is a unique number issued by the Vehicle Registration and Management Department for a vehicle, consisting of letters and numbers. The VRM of a vehicle is not only used to identify the vehicle, but also used for vehicle registration, insurance and reporting.

How to track a vehicle?

1. Identify the country/region where the vehicle is located

http://worldlicenseplates.com/

This website provides images and information of license plates from all over the world. Users can search for license plate images by country and city and match them with the license plate of the target vehicle to identify the most likely location where the vehicle image was taken.

2. Recognizing vehicle make and model

https://carnet.ai/

This website utilizes artificial intelligence technology to identify the make, model, and style of a vehicle, and can identify most vehicle makes manufactured since 1995 with a 97% accuracy rate.

3. Search for vehicle history information

https://www.vehiclehistory.com/

This website provides a wide range of information on a vehicle's owner history, maintenance history, and accident reports.

4. Search for license plates

https://platerecognizer.com/

This website supports license plate search for more than 90 countries. Users only need to upload the license plate or the image of the vehicle to look up the vehicle model, manufacturer, region and other information.