Check am.
It is Nigerian Pidgin, and it means exactly what it sounds like: check it. Before you hand over the money, before you trust the mileage on the dash, before you believe the story about one careful owner in Houston — check am.
The paperwork already exists. It is just on the wrong continent.
Nigeria imports hundreds of thousands of used American vehicles a year, through Cotonou, Apapa and Tin Can Island. Every one of them left behind a paper trail in the United States: who titled it, what an insurer paid out on it, what the odometer read each time it changed hands.
That record is federal, it is dated, and the man selling you the car in Lagos cannot reach it, edit it, or delete it. Until now he could simply assume you would never look.
Where the data comes from
- NMVTIS
- National Motor Vehicle Title Information System — the federal title database
- NHTSA
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — recall notices, per VIN
- State DMV records
- Title and registration data from all fifty US states
- Insurance databases
- US insurance claims and total-loss records
What a report turns up.
- Salvage or rebuilt titles from US insurance write-offs
- Odometers rolled back by tens of thousands of miles
- Flood damage repaired and hidden under fresh paint
- Theft records and outstanding finance
- Open safety recalls never repaired before export
A report is not an inspection. Not every incident reaches a US database, so check the car physically as well — this tells you what the paperwork says, which is the half nobody else can show you.
Nigeria first.
CheckAm launched in Nigeria because it is the largest Tokunbo market in Africa and the one where buyers have had the least protection. The same databases cover every American car exported anywhere, so the same check works wherever those cars land next.
Ready to check your next Tokunbo?
One VIN. ₦15,000. Checked against the US federal record.
Check a car now