Auto Theft Prevention

Auto thieves also take advantage of the differences in state vehicle branding laws to “clone” vehicles. VIN cloning occurs when a VIN from a legally owned and documented vehicle—often one sitting in a parking lot or dealership lot—is illegally copied. The VIN then is used to make counterfeit tags. The perpetrator typically steals a vehicle similar to the one from which the legitimate VIN was taken. The stolen vehicle’s actual VIN tag then is replaced with the counterfeit tag. The vehicle now is a “clone” of the legitimate vehicle parked in the lot. With the counterfeit VIN, the stolen...