Car Cloning: Car Thieves’ Latest Obsession & the New Trend in Auto Theft

Whether you consider it clever or enterprising, car cloning is a crime – a crime that has continued to thrive in spite of a number of protective measures and preventatives. More than 1.3 million cars are stolen in the U.S. each year, carrying a price tag of more than $8 billion annually. Of the 1.3 million autos stolen each year, a significant percentage of autos end up in the hands of committed car theft rings. In fact, as recent as March 2009, the FBI dismantled a $25 million a year car cloning ring. The ring stole cars and sold their clones across 20 states and several counties. In some cases the cloned vehicles were exchanged for drugs. Unfortunately, this multi-million dollar car-cloning ring was one of many.

According to the National Crime Insurance Bureau (NICB), vehicle cloning is a highly lucrative crime that often carries the car thief across international borders as well in order to sell the cloned cars for top dollar.

So how does cloning work?

The first step in the cloning process is to copy a vehicle identification number (VIN) from a legally owned and documented vehicle sitting in just about any mall, or grocery store parking or vehicle dealership. The stolen VIN is then used to create counterfeit VIN tags. Next, the car thief sets out on a search for a vehicle similar to the one that matches the legitimate VIN. The stolen vehicle's legal VIN is replaced with the counterfeit one. Once the stolen vehicle has a legal VIN tag, it can easily be sold or traded without detection by government agencies. And the scam doesn't stop there. The final step in the process is to create counterfeit ownership documents for the cloned vehicle.

It is not uncommon for criminals to obtain the ownership documentation under false pretenses. The fake documentation is then used to sell the stolen vehicle to an innocent buyer. Unfortunately, the vast majority of licensing agencies do not check for duplicate ownership when an out-of-state ownership document is surrendered. This makes detection very difficult. What makes car cloning even easier is: it’s easy to simultaneously insure identical VIN tags in two different locations.

Car Cloning and the FBI

Car cloning is at the top of the FBI’s list of crackdowns in its fight against auto theft. Supervisory Special Agent Ryan Toole, head of the vehicle theft program at the FBI headquarters in Washington says, “Cloning is by far our biggest car theft challenge.” He goes on to say that in spite of the challenges, car cloning is still “preventable.” The FBI has been relentless in its efforts to link motor vehicle departments (DMV) in every state. Linking all state DMV’s would have a serious impact on cloning operations mainly because the states could talk to one another electronically. This means that you could not register a car in Florida using a VIN from Tennessee. The system just wouldn’t allow it. So far, a handful of states have signed up for the program and more are expected to follow suit in the coming months.

How to Protect Yourself Against Car Thieves and Car Cloning Scams

Two of the most effective ways to avoid purchasing a cloned car are: check the vehicle's VIN tag with your state department of motor vehicles and conduct a title search of the vehicle, especially if you plan to purchase a vehicle from a newspaper ad and the contact only uses a cell phone number. You should also:

• Analyze the ownership pattern for any new or late model vehicle with no lien holder
• Ask your insurer to inspect the vehicle BEFORE purchasing
• Trust your gut. If the seller doesn't seem trustworthy, if he can't provide clear answers to your questions, or if the deal sounds too good to be true, simply walk away