Car Cloning : How Someone Can “Legally” Steal Your Car
Cars have become somewhat a commodity to us. However, the prices of some cars make it a necessity that is not necessarily within the reach of our means. Aside from that, the resale value of cars itself is a good reason for someone to steal it.
Car thefts are not something new. People have been reporting stolen cars all over the world, those in residential areas, secured mall parkings and even gated communities. And with every reported case, it seems that car thieves are upping their game at every turn. The latest one, stealing your car “legally”. Yes, you read right, there is a “legal” way for them to steal your car.
This new method of car theft is also known as car cloning and is way more common than you think. The process of stealing the car itself is more of an identity theft and a planned crime rather than a common car theft. Let’s see how these crafty car thieves go about “legalizing” their stolen vehicles.
How To Check When Someone Steal Your Car’s Identity
#1 Getting the Car
Well, before you “legalize” the car, you will actually need a car to start with. What happens here is that car thieves finalize their choices before they go out and nick your car. First, they find a car that they want to clone, which could be any registered vehicle with a license plate. After picking out the car, they will need to choose a similar model to the car they are looking to clone. Once they find an exact make and model they carefully plan and execute the physical car theft. The cars that they usually go for are cars that are commonly used by people like Hondas, Kias and Toyotas. The main reasons why are that they are much easier to camouflage and the possibility of them finding a buyer for the cloned car is much higher.
#2 Full Makeover
After getting their hands on the car, that’s where the whole process begins. As a beginning step, they would need to tie up any loose ends about the physical appearance of the car. If the color does not match the original car they plan to clone, the stolen car undergoes a full paint-job to look as close as possible to the original. Once that’s done, the original chassis number of the stolen car will be replaced with the chassis number from the car that they are trying to clone. On some cars, these chassis number or vehicle identification number (VIN) is stuck on using a label maker, which makes the thief’s job much easier. All these makeovers help the stolen car look exactly like the car they are planning to clone.
#3 “Legalizing” the Car
After the physical makeover, the car cloned car gets a new set of documents, with a new owner, and such other details. The only difference is that the registration plate would be exactly the same as the car they had marked to be cloned. Another thing is that the stolen car will have the same vehicle identity number (VIN) as the car they had cloned. However, the authorities would have a hard time trying to pick out the real from the cloned car as both would look exactly alike, down to the license plates. Once “legalized”, these cars usually end up on second-hand car sale sites or dealerships and even on online buy and sell sites like Craigslist.
This sneaky method of cloning cars is not something that can be identified at one look, since it’s essentially identity theft, but for cars. The best way to prevent yourself from falling victim to such fake cars is by sticking to the rule of “if it’s too good to be true, it may very well be”. Such cloned cars are sold dirt cheap, so if you think you’ve landed a bargain, you may want to think twice. If you suspect that your car seller may be selling cloned cars, uncover their identity with our simple reverse phone lookup, which searches through all available public records for a match.
Disclaimer:
The above is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute a legal advice or specific recommendations in any way.
