“With scams like this, the crooks steal the cars, forge paperwork to sell them, and then use a tracking device to show up at your home a few days later with a second key to steal the vehicle back and re-sell it,” …
Was at dmv the other day to ask about dup titles. They print them out now. Which is new. And also mail them of course. Wonder if they are the same? Paper. Printing.
When I renewed my registration online, I was given the opportunity to print the new reg. I did so, and when the new one arrived in the mail a week or so later, they were identical.
I don’t know why you would want to do that on line when you can go down in person and deal with a pretty girl under 40.
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I guess that the staff at your local DMV office is very different from the staff at the one nearest to my house.
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Bing lives at Lake Woebegone where all the children and the adults are above average. 
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In VA if you go in person to the DMV for any transaction that is available on line you get charged $5 for doing it in person. Ain’t that a kick in the head.
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They should charge $25, it will be a long time before they collect enough fees to build an additional DMV location to accommodate those who won’t use online or mail services. There should also be a penalty for wasting fuel.
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Scandihoovians and a few German and French to the mix. 
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In TX, the plates stay with the car so that should have been a red flag for the CO buyer. Also, you can run a free check on any VIN to see if the vehicle has been reported stolen or has a salvage title @ VINCheck® Lookup | National Insurance Crime Bureau. BTW, how do the thieves have two fobs - 1 to keep and 1 to give to the victim? Did they break into the original owner’s house? This story could have included a paragraph at the end advising readers how to avoid scams like this, but instead it just said "Trust your instincts’. Opportunity missed.
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Steal one with the car and have the other one made. A small price to pay for the thousands they steal in the transaction.
Or they might have bought or whatever the hardware and software to make their own fobs…
In Illinois they aren’t offering in person or mail alternatives at all for any price to some of the services that are going online.
How do you solve the problem of someone who obtains a duplicate title for a vehicle, and then sells a stolen vehicle with possibly faked VIN tag using the original title and then sells the real vehicle using the duplicate title? When the real vehicle buyer goes to the DMV they are told that the title is invalid as it has already been titled to a new owner. Do the transaction and exchange cash at the DMV perhaps?
Perhaps you mean sell both with the car, but obtain a 3rd fob from the dealer as the legitimate owner before selling it which is then used to steal the car with?
That is why you always check the VIN on the vehicle to make sure it matches the title… And the dash VIN not the door sticker VIN if the sticker is on the door and not on the B pillar…
What if the person ahead of you didn’t, when they bought a car using an original title that actually belongs to the car you are buying?
That makes no sense at all…??..
I don’t care if I am the 30th person to buy the vehicle, I will make sure the title matches the VIN on the dash, if something looks out of place, that is a Red Flag to not buy the vehicle, or if the VIN’s don’t match, I dang sure am not going to buy it…
I said the person ahead of you didn’t. The duplicate title that the seller gave you does match the VIN. When you take it to the DMV, they tell you that this title has already been assigned to a new owner. Now what?
Don’t take/accept a duplicate title, make the seller go down and get a current title, or you both go down to verify …
Recently the local DMV detained a late model truck during a VIN inspection for the police. They found VIN tampering/fraud, the vehicle was stolen.
The buyer paid more than $50K for the truck, he had enough evidence for the police to locate the seller and make an arrest.
Advice from the DMV: conduct private party transactions at the VIN inspection station, they know what to look for.
Then you can’t even buy a vehicle from someone who lost the title and had to get a duplicate. Yes, do the transaction at the DMV where they can tell you if the title has already been transferred to someone else.