registering a car trailer in NY

kdebello

Well-Known Member
OK, this is a long story but here's the shorter version.

Sold a Featherlite open car trailer on ebay in 2007.

I get a call a few weeks ago from someone claiming to be from NY State Police looking to get info on a trailer I owned and sold. I thought it was a scam so I had him give me the info he had, and everything seemed to check out. He even emailed me the docs he had with my name on it.

Ends up, the guy I sold it to 12 years ago, never registered it. Apparently just used plates from another trailer all this time. In NJ, there's no title for trailers under 2500 lbs, only a Cert of Ownership. The latest owner, who lives in NY, has the COA with my name on it. He says NY needs a title. The NY State police (not sure if he's a trooper or just works with NY) and the latest owner are asking me to see what I can do, since NJMVC shows the trailer was last registered in my name.

It all still sounds a little fishy. The email from the NY State guy did come from a troopers.ny.gov address. He did have my original docs from when I owned the trailer.

I still didn't get an answer as to why Guy#2 can't help. At least get the docs in his name since he's had the trailer for 12 years.

My main concern is getting involved in this and having Guy#2 come back and say it's still his trailer.

This is why I stopped selling crap on ebay. There's always some sort of hassle. Even years later.
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
https://dmv.ny.gov/registration/proof-ownership-not-available

my brother had this issue - NJ has a form that needs to be notarized. NY should honor it.
or perhaps one of the NY forms up there.

i would add the original date of sale, vs current change of ownership to protect yourself.
isn't too much of a hassle

nice of you, but you should be reimbursed for the hassle.
he should be willing, because if the police are looking into it, there is probably an "issue"
that he is trying to resolve before going to court - and get it out of the impound.
 

serviceguy

Well-Known Member
I bought my trailer in NY and register it in NJ, as you said there's no title for those trailers in NJ. Did you sign your NY title and had the bill of sale notarized? He obviously did not want to pay sales taxes and registration so just slapped a tag from another trailer, but as long as you have proof that you sold it legally to him you should be fine. Obviously Guy#2 didn't even bother to provide the latest buyer with the title signed by you or that would have worked too.
 

kdebello

Well-Known Member
I'm still doing some research on both the "trooper" and the current owner of the trailer.

Some more details on the whole thing:
Couple of things made me think this was a scam. First call I got from NY St. trooper, said I could call him back on the # he called from, which was supposedly his desk#. I called and got a Verizon message saying the call could not be completed. Googled the # and nothing came up. I figured it was a scam and forgot about it. The second time he called our house # and left a message. I tried the # again and got a message the line was disconnected. He called my cell the next time and that's when I answered and had him tell me what this was about and what info he had.

He's seems legit on the phone, so I gave him an email that I don't care about getting spam on. Sent me the docs he had with my name and included Guy#3. Told us he's done all he could do and for us to contact each other.

Never heard from guy#3. I get a call from the trooper asking if I received his email since he never heard back. I thought that was strange as he said to take him off the emails and contact each other.

Last email I sent out was asking what guy#3 wants me to do. What exactly he needs to register in NY. If he has some legal docs to send me. He has the COA that I signed in 2007, so legally, I've signed this over to a new owner. If he were registering in NJ, that should be all he needs.
 

iman29

Well-Known Member
totally sounds fishy to me these days you never know what people's motivation is to get info from you. Once someone has compiled some basic information about you (most of it is easily found online) they only need 1 or 2 more things (like a drivers license #) to start doing some damage.

I am biased though since about 5 years ago my family laptop got a virus and my wife's identity got stolen. Back then the worst outcome was about 5000 bucks worth of charges to her credit cards that we got taken off, but every few years she gets some crazy charges and she has to get a new card.

I would contact your local PD and see if they can help you at least verify the "trooper" in this case. to me this is a major RED flag: why does he care anymore if he said he was just making a connection?

Never heard from guy#3. I get a call from the trooper asking if I received his email since he never heard back. I thought that was strange as he said to take him off the emails and contact each other.

As an IT person the last 25 years, I can tell you its very easy to fake an email sender address into @ny.state.gov or whatever it is to make it look like its official. I have 100 emails in my spam that tell me that Fedex has a package for me to "click here to accept" and at a quick glance i could see people falling for it.

beyond that I would shy away from offering any other information since you already provided what's needed for the owner of the trailer you sold to properly register it. If the trooper guy calls again lie to him and tell him you spoke to Guy#3 and you dont have any more information you can offer beyond what's been given.
 

JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
First call I got from NY St. trooper, said I could call him back on the # he called from, which was supposedly his desk

Caller ID is incredibly easy to spoof, so calling him back on the number he called from would do nothing. You want to google the main number for the NY state police and then call that and ask for the trooper.
 

Magic

Formerly 1sh0t1b33r
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Ask @Carson to look up this trooper in his super secret phone book of all the people on the United States of America. Better yet, ask him to call the 'trooper' with his super secret lingo and see how quick he hangs up.
 

kdebello

Well-Known Member
totally sounds fishy to me these days you never know what people's motivation is to get info from you. Once someone has compiled some basic information about you (most of it is easily found online) they only need 1 or 2 more things (like a drivers license #) to start doing some damage.

As an IT person the last 25 years, I can tell you its very easy to fake an email sender address into @ny.state.gov or whatever it is to make it look like its official. I have 100 emails in my spam that tell me that Fedex has a package for me to "click here to accept" and at a quick glance i could see people falling for it.

beyond that I would shy away from offering any other information since you already provided what's needed for the owner of the trailer you sold to properly register it. If the trooper guy calls again lie to him and tell him you spoke to Guy#3 and you dont have any more information you can offer beyond what's been given.

Yeah, I didn't give him anything. Told him from the start to give me the info he has and we'll see. He had my address, my cell and home #s. Had the docs from when I sold the trailer to guy#2.

I gave him my throwaway gmail address.

the source ip info for the email from the trooper comes up as:
  • The email source IP address is: 161.11.225.36
  • The email source IP host name is: email.svc.ny.gov
  • Country: United States
  • City: East Greenbush
  • Area Code: 518
  • Latitude: 42.5951
  • Longitude: -73.6826
  • ISP: New York State
  • Organization: New York State
 

iman29

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I didn't give him anything. Told him from the start to give me the info he has and we'll see. He had my address, my cell and home #s. Had the docs from when I sold the trailer to guy#2.

I gave him my throwaway gmail address.

the source ip info for the email from the trooper comes up as:
  • The email source IP address is: 161.11.225.36
  • The email source IP host name is: email.svc.ny.gov
  • Country: United States
  • City: East Greenbush
  • Area Code: 518
  • Latitude: 42.5951
  • Longitude: -73.6826
  • ISP: New York State
  • Organization: New York State
That’s good intel on your part.

The domain and IP range is owned by NY state but still a chance could be spoofed/faked.

Free IP lookup web site comes back with this.

526BC66E-29E2-45AA-9413-EF8EE274F374.png
 

w_b

Well-Known Member
Solve this easily; gotta get Guy #4 involved. Guy #4 is the key to this. Just checkout that source IP address; says it all. Guy #4 crying out for attention.
 
Top Bottom