Does RI Have a Black Market in Car Inspection Stickers?

JOHNSTON, RI—So, Anthony Royal Tannenbaum isn't his real name, but he's a suspect, state police say, in an ongoing investigation into black market car inspection stickers.

For $50, he'll sell you an inspection sticker with a real VIN. According to several witnesses, he's been making the rounds of social media car sites, like Gas of RI, posting his wares and then deleting the information.

He's been trumpeted as the"Brilliant Rhode Island Man Selling Stolen Inspection Tickers on Facebook Page with 25,000 Members."

But according to police, his stickers typically have only a couple of months left until expiration. However, they appear to be the genuine article.

Detectives believes the stickers were scraped from car windshields and that the original owners are not involved in the sales.

The state police say they hear from time to time of similar scams but do not believe a large scale operation or a counterfeiting operation is going on in Rhode Island, similar to one that started in The Bronx in 1990, which the New York Times reported on.