Then what is the purpose of the tag and why the need to hide the VIN "to protect yourself".

I don't have a great respect for check writers or polishers myself but they have brought a lot to the hobby some bad but a lot good. Some people simply aren't mechanically inclined, should they be barred from the hobby? Some have limited time to enjoy the hobby and their kick comes from cleaning the glass and talking about their car with others, do they not belong in the hobby? One of the biggest of which is that all the repop stuff (good and bad) would not be available if it was just people like me in the hobby, it takes the big money guys to make it worth someone's investment to reproduce a part. I'll spend years finding a piece and days restoring it to save a dollar, many want or cant. I can also put up with less than perfect, many cant. I drive my cars 1000s of miles each year, all of them and give little thought to the value of them or the risk I am taking but I am very aware of protecting my money so they are insured accordingly. So far I have not made a bad financial toy car decision but I do proceed with caution sometimes to my own handicapping. It's not always about money, documented cars are worth more and as of yet MOST fake tags can be identified as such, except of course the ones we cant tell and no one was honest about he tags origin. If you at least report the VIN to the registries then the next guy is protected if he does his due diligence regardless how many times the car change hands.