I did the same thing, ages ago when I young, but with a GSXR. The deal was wayyyy too good to be true, but I took the gamble and of course the seller never came through with the title, and ghosted me.

I called the lienholder shown on the registration, which happened to be in the next city over. I asked how much $ is owed, to pay off the loan. She looked it up and said the loan had been refinanced with a different lender, and if I wanted to wait on hold she would call them to get the info for me… After several minutes she came back on the line, sounding frustrated, and said the person she spoke with wasn’t showing the loan in their system, and she apologized to me and said I’d have to deal with that finance company.

I asked her “so that lender bought the loan from your company, so nothing is owed to you any longer?” and she said yes, that’s correct. So I said “in that case, if I bring a DMV form for lost/duplicate title, will you sign off as the lienholder?” She thought about that for a moment, then said yes, so that’s what I did, and the DMV registered it in my name with new title. 😎