Sherman Habibian, a Las Vegas, Nevada man, was casually shopping on Facebook Marketplace when he spotted a 2023 GMC Sierra 2500HD listed for $53,000. For that year and model, it was a deal he couldn’t resist. After buying it from the seller in cash, he followed protocol and took it to the DMV to register it.

That’s when he realized the deal on the truck was too good to be true.

“I’m sitting at the VIN Inspection and when [the police] pull up on you and the lights come on my stomach just dropped,” he told KLAS.

Habibian ended up a victim of VIN swapping, a common practice in Sin City. The outlet says the Nevada DMV sees multiple cases of VIN swapping every week, and most go unsolved. Habibian lost his new GMC truck and $53,000 in cash when authorities impounded the vehicle.

However, Habibian did something most VIN-swapping victims don’t do that might help get his 50 G’s returned.

“I didn’t think he would think I would ask for his ID, but I think that did help in the investigation a little bit,” he said.

Police said his thinking to ask to see an ID and giving them the scammer’s fake ID gave them a valuable lead.

“The buyer had a relatively significant amount of information about the seller which often doesn’t happen,” said JD Decker, the Chief of the Compliance Enforcement Division with the DMV.

Police quickly arrested the truck-selling suspect

The suspected seller of the stolen truck was 22-year-old Lasta Vukcevic Rodriguez. It only took the police three days to find him. However, Decker doesn’t think Rodriguez is the head of the snake. Instead, he’s likely a middleman.

While police continue their efforts to crack down on VIN swappers, there are a few ways buyers can avoid kissing their cash goodbye. Be sure to never pay cash for vehicles, and meet the seller at a DMV VIN inspection station. If the buyer is legit, there won’t be any issues, Decker said.

Being diligent and not letting a purchase become emotional can save someone their cash and heartache.

“We’ve had a number of cases where people have done that and we’ve saved them tens of thousands of dollars because our inspectors identified that the vehicle was stolen,” said Decker, referring to meeting a buyer at the DMV.