Can someone charge you to look up a carfax report?

Question

I saw on this forum that a guy was charging people $1 and he would check a vehicle through his carfax account for you. can he legally do this? I mean cant he get in trouble for that? I mean no one on the forum thought it was weired but i found kinda strange so i thought i would ask.

Thanks.

P.S. im not complaining i just was curious! lol

Answer 1

I found this at the Y!A suggestion board forum:
*********copy******

Carfax Requests
Created 2 months ago by anonymous user.

I suggest that there be somesort of written warning regarding the requests for carfax reports. There are strick guidelines to be up held by the carfax user and people found in violation of those guidelines could be punished by law.

I think Yahoo! Answers should post a warning regarding such requests showing that they will uphold business agreements even if they are not their own.

Yahoo! Answers employees have reviewed this suggestion -- thanks


by [e-mail] | 2 months ago
Ahhhh the Carfax dilemma,
I see people asking for FREE Carfax reports (also Autocheck reports) everyday.
And that's a problem.
although it is not against any Community Guidelines, Yahoo Terms of Service to ASK for somebody to give you something for nothing.....

It is against the Carfax Terms of Use for an ANSWERER to post the information requested.
EXCERPTED from Carfax legal disclaimer:
{"CARFAX and its affiliates and are protected by United States and international copyright, trademark and other applicable intellectual property laws. You may not modify, publish, transmit, display, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works, or in any way exploit any of the Content, in whole or in part."}

Now comes the 'Tricky' part:
If a Yahoo!Answers user violates the Carfax terms of use..... They THEN ALSO have violated Yahoos Terms of Service.

EXCERPTED from Yahoo TOS:
(section 6)
MEMBER CONDUCT
You agree to not use the Service to:

e. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);

f. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights ("Rights") of any party;

THEREFORE A PERSON POSTING CARFAX REPORTS IS IN VIOLATION OF BOTH "TERMS"

BUT it goes even further than that....
Because the person that actually posts the Carfax report is actually giving the asker EXACTLY what they want... therefore is often CHOSEN as BEST ANSWER.

Then if the Best Answer gets deleted as a violation, the whole question gets deleted...
AND THEN you see some poor soul over at the 'appeal a violation' board asking why their question got deleted.
AND THEN AGAIN you also see the answerer over there too asking about their account being deleted...
AND THEN FURTHERMORE you have the Y!A staff saying "For legal reasons we can't tell anybody what they did wrong... but please don't do it again"

HENCE THE DILEMMA/QUAGMIRE.

AND THEN FURTHERMORE
There is always several non-answer posts to the Q that say:
"go pay for it yourself, you cheapskate!"

AND THEN that answer gets reported as a NON-Answer.....

and so on

and so on

and so on

SO DON'T ASK FOR A FREE CARFAX REPORT !!!!!!!
*********end copy*********

That should answer your question

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

There are affiliates charging less, say $1. If you need a free or cheap carfax,
ask the dealer or you can get a very cheap report ($4.99 with discount coupon) that
includes detailed information at NMVTIS. It is a relieaable source of
car history reports that include information such as odometer readings,
title issue dates, title brands and lien checks in addition to
theft and salvage information. Here's the 50% discount link
http://bitly.com/50OFF_Report

Answer 4

He already paid for a certain number of days or time or lookups, and so now you get to get a good deal by paying only $1 instead of the full price. There is no law saying he can't charge for the use of something he already has purchased. Why are you complaining?

EDIT: If I were you, I'd charge people $2 and then take their info to this dude and pay him the $1 to run the reports, which you would then give back to them! Voila! Profit for both of you and a report for a good price for the people!

Answer 5

If he had to pay for the account then I see no problem trying to get some of his money back, $1 is nothing compared to if you had to open an account to check it yourself

Answer 6

I guess if he is no longer around that would explain it. Nobody wants to do it for free for the so called "poor student" . Can`t blame him for trying .