Is the car really there? Photos with a random code

Photos in a listing carry no date you can trust. They may be from yesterday or from two years ago, taken by the seller or copied from someone else's listing. A widespread fraud pattern in remote purchases needs exactly that: photos of a real car and a seller who is not where the car is.

The proven countermeasure is a live video call in which you direct the camera. It remains the best step before travelling, but it needs an appointment, a shared language and a seller willing to do it. The live proof on Carvexia is smaller: it only answers whether someone had access to a car with this VIN after your request — but without an appointment and without a word in a foreign language.

The car's page has a box called “Request a live proof”; you need an account to use it. Your request creates a six-digit random code, and the seller receives it by e-mail together with a link. They write the code legibly on a piece of paper and take the photos with it.

The trick lies in the timing. The code did not exist before your request, so no older photo can show it — neither one from the listing nor one copied from another listing. Whoever shows it next to the VIN was standing at a car with that number after you asked.

The link sent to the seller is valid for 48 hours and only once. Photos can only be taken with the camera of the device on which the link is opened; nothing can be uploaded from the photo gallery. Metadata such as location are removed. Only you and Carvexia's administration see the photos, for example when something is reported. For the automatic reading they are sent to an external AI service, and they are deleted after 30 days.

The seller takes three photos in a fixed order. Each has a job, and each can fail at a particular point. Where the VIN sits depends on the model — often at the bottom of the windscreen, on a plate in the door frame or stamped into the engine bay. Owners who do not know where it is on their car will find it in the owner's manual.

The three photos in detail:

Once the photos are submitted, three things are read automatically: the digits on the note, the VIN and the mileage. Only then are they compared with the requested code and the VIN from the listing. You get an e-mail, and the result appears with the photos in your account under “Enquiries”.

The result is marked “Read automatically, not proof”. So in every case look at the photos yourself before you travel or pay. If the automatic reading fails, the photos are still there. The individual lines mean:

A proof in which the code and VIN match says: someone had access to a car with this number after your request and photographed it with your code. Nothing more. It is not proof and not a check by Carvexia.

When the code and VIN match, the car's page shows “Live proof provided on …” for up to 30 days, with the same note. If you see this line on a listing, another interested buyer requested the proof; what applies to them applies to you. If it is missing, that means nothing — perhaps nobody asked. What the proof cannot show:

Whether and when the seller takes the photos is up to them. You can see the status in your account: requested, submitted, expired or declined. If the deadline passes without photos, you can request a new proof. If the seller declines, the request ends immediately and no new one is possible for this listing for the time being. If a listing has no e-mail address on file, no proof can be requested at all, because the code would reach nobody; the enquiry form remains.

How you read this depends on everything else. A seller who is not with the car right now, has no phone with a camera or missed the e-mail is not a fraudster. Use the enquiry form to ask whether another time suits or a video call is possible. But a seller who refuses every way of showing the car as it is today — no code, no video call, no viewing — and still pushes for payment has answered the question the proof was meant to ask.

A consistent proof is a good reason to carry on — not a reason to speed up. The next step is the papers: the registration document and the seller's ID, the names matching, the VIN the same as in the photo.

Then comes the viewing, in person or by an independent garage near the car that you commission. Carvexia offers no on-site inspection, no escrow and no reservation. Anyone who suggests a deposit “for security” after a consistent proof is using the proof as an argument — and that is exactly what it is not good for.

Payment happens only when the car, papers and keys are handed over together. How that works across a border without risk is described in the guide on paying abroad; the typical patterns of fraud are covered in the guide on car-buying fraud.