License Plate Search Sites - Avoiding Scams

License Plate Search Sites - Avoiding Scams

You have just become a victim of a crime, and despite your loss you feel slight comfort in the fact that you were able to attain the license plate number on the vehicle driven by the person who victimized you.

Now you go to the internet for help in possibly identifying the criminal. On the internet, you find numerous sites that either provide instant record searches or promise unlimited searches. Your slightly confused, but your able to do some price comparison research, and you go with the site that appears to be the cheapest. You even do a preliminary search with this site by entering the license plate number and state, and the site states they have a record for you. All you need to do now is to pay a membership fee. Hey, no big deal, the payment covers searches for an entire year. So you pay it.

Then comes the confusion. Your either linked to another site that wants another payment per record, or your directed to a menu that does not provide the license plate information.

Wait a minute! Didn't you just pay for the record? They said they had it, and all you had to do is pay the membership. This ain't right!! Oh no, you just been victimized again!!!

Knowing Scam / Misleading Sites:

How were these sites created?
Since the beginning of the web, people have always come up with unique ways to make money. It began innocently as an information resource which was soon followed by companies with sites trying to reach more customers. Then came advertising soon followed by individually owned sites. Soon anyone could have a site, including anyone who wanted to make money. Individuals with sites quickly found ways to advertise on their site pages which included pop up ads or advertising banners that linked people to other sites. Then came the ultimate idea of charging people just to view their site and links. They would then call it an exclusive membership, and that all the professionals and experts use and endorse them.

What do membership sites generally do?
Someone in the beginning got an idea that they could make money by having people join there site. The site would provide some general information and include links to other sites so people could find whatever they needed. First came sites such as Net Detective and Web Detective. Soon after a few years, dozens of these sites appeared such as license plate search, reverse license plate lookup, government records, unlimited searches, instant backgrounds, reverse phone, and so on and so on (over 95% of the sites that advertise license plate searches on Bing & Google are information link resource sites).

What is the problem with these sites?
First, its the way they advertise. They fool customers into buying a membership by making them believe they deliver the information the customer is seeking. They may state they have unlimited access to records, or they may provide an instant search menu where a person enters phone number, license plate number, or name, and then they state they have a record for the information your seeking. Regardless what these sites state, they do not have the information, nor do they deliver the record. What ends up happening is that either they provide a list of links for members to choose to go to, or they automatically link the member to another site. In the end, the customer pays money for a middleman to direct them to sites or a site that was already searchable through search engines for free.

Second, they flood the internet with dishonest sites. What happens when you flood the internet with sites that dont deliver what they state? The honest companies get pushed down in search engine rankings, and people just wont trust any site, regardless if the site is legitimate or not. Each day we receive dozens of calls in reference to whether we are legitimate or not. It does not matter how many warnings we post about the member sites, we still get calls from customers complaining that they paid membership fees to 3 different web sites and they did not get what they were promised.

How do I recognize the honest from the dishonest sites?
Very easy - if the site does not provide a business address and or phone number to call them, then stay away from that site.

How do I get my money back from these sites?
The best way to attain a refund is to call the phone number associated with the charge. That number should be posted on your paper or online payment card statement. Then state you were misled and you want a full refund. You will be surprised, when these companies receive the call, how fast they process your refund request. Its like they anticipate that your call is about attaining a refund. See, they know what their doing is wrong. There hoping, or better yet, counting on the fact that your are too busy to get your refund.

If calling and asking for a refund does not help, then I would advise disputing the charge with your payment card company. Now, I do not advise doing this initially. Many of these sites have fine print at the bottom page of their site that state what membership covers, and that fine print may be enough for the customer to lose a dispute if the site decides to respond to the chargeback. Plus there is a reason why credit card fees are going way up and more and more internet providers are going to paypal. There are just too many chargebacks being made and lost by customers which take up time and money.

If you need assistance tracking a plate legally, please contact us, or visit our license plate search web page at http://uslicenseplatesearch.com.

Ken Burbridge
Licensed Detective - State of Indiana
President/Owner - Burbridge Detective Agency
Accredited Member - Better Business Bureau
Member - Nat. Assoc. Investigation Specialist
Burbridge Detective Agency,LLC
1457 E 84th Place
Merrillville, IN 46410
Phone - 219-629-3260
Fax - 219-940-3926
Web - http://www.burbridgepi.com/
Email: bda.investigation@burbridgepi.com
Detective License #: PI20700205