1. The seller insists on cash and won't meet at home
The single biggest red flag. Legitimate private sellers will normally let you inspect the vehicle at their residence (matching the address on the registration). A seller who insists on meeting at a "neutral location" — a shopping centre car park, a service station, a McDonald's — is hiding something. The two most common reasons:
- The vehicle isn't registered to them and they don't want you to see the registered owner's address.
- The vehicle is stolen, and they don't want to be tracked back to any address.
Counter: Insist on inspecting at the seller's residence and match their photo ID against the rego papers. Run a NEVDIS check (in our $19.99 Essentials report) to confirm the registered address matches.
2. The price is significantly below market
If a 2020 Toyota HiLux SR5 with 60,000 km is advertised at $32,000 when comparable examples are $45,000+, the seller is either desperate or running a scam. The most common scam is the "moving overseas / urgent sale" cover story — pressure tactics to make you commit before you do due diligence.
Counter: The Comprehensive report on Aussie Car Check ($29.99) includes Carsales market valuation. If the asking price is below the bottom of the market range, the seller knows something you don't. Walk away or negotiate on the assumption you'll find the catch in the inspection.
3. The VIN on the compliance plate doesn't match the rego papers
Stolen vehicles are commonly "rebirthed" — the VIN on the compliance plate is replaced with one from a written-off donor vehicle of the same make/model/year. To check:
- Get the VIN from the rego papers (it's on the front of the registration certificate, 17 alphanumeric characters).
- Find the compliance plate on the vehicle (typically on the door jamb, firewall, or engine bay) and read the VIN there.
- Compare them character by character — they MUST match.
- Also check for any signs of tampering on the compliance plate (re-rivets, peeling, mismatched fonts, fresh paint near the edges).
Counter: A NEVDIS check (in our $19.99 Essentials) returns the VIN that the registration is actually attached to — if that VIN doesn't match what's on the compliance plate, the vehicle is almost certainly stolen.
4. The seller refuses any independent inspection
A common script: "I've got three other buyers coming this afternoon, the inspector won't get here in time, take it or leave it." Pure pressure tactic. Any seller refusing a buyer-funded mechanical inspection (which costs you nothing and them no time) is hiding faults.
Counter: If the seller refuses, treat it as confirmation of a problem and walk away. There WILL be another car like it on the market within days. Don't let urgency-marketing override your diligence.
5. The service history doesn't match the kilometres
Open the logbook. Each service entry records the kilometres at that service. They should be a clean monotonically-increasing sequence (each service shows higher km than the previous). If the 2022 service shows 160,000 km and the 2024 service shows 95,000 km, the odometer has been rolled back. The seller didn't think to also forge the service book.
Counter: Our Comprehensive report ($29.99) includes a mileage tampering analysis that cross-references every NEVDIS-recorded kilometre reading and flags backwards steps automatically. See the full guide to spotting odometer rollback for the manual signs to look for as well.
What protections you DO have privately
Even buying privately, the seller has obligations under state-specific consumer-protection laws — they cannot lie about material facts (kilometres, accident history, ownership). If you've been actively defrauded (vs simply caveat emptor on a fault you didn't catch), you can pursue civil action and report to the relevant state fair-trading office and ACCC Scamwatch.
The catch is that civil action against a private seller is slow and often fruitless — they may have already disappeared with your money. Prevention via PPSR + NEVDIS check before purchase is dramatically cheaper than trying to recover money after.