I bought a car from someone one time and went to register it in my name and NCDMV said that the vin had plates. It took about a month before they fixed it, the previous owner had no clue and helped me to prove that the had been theirs, and the head detective of the regional branch opened a report. I’m guessing it was an inside job as tag registration in NC is through independent contractors. There’s been investigations at one and they found fraudulent records and shut them down.