Auto identity theft: Thieves steal your car's VIN number

11:26 AM CDT on Monday, May 23, 2005

By Jeremy Desel / 11News

Click to watch video

If you're in the market for a used car, be careful. You could be buying one that has been stolen, thanks to a new kind of crime.

It's called auto identity theft and it's all about VIN numbers.

"Ultimately it is all about greed. They are out to make a buck," says Jim Woods of the HPD Auto Theft Division.

KHOU-TV

Thieves copy VIN numbers of legal cars, then make new VIN plates for stolen cars.

It just takes one look at the 17 numbers and letters that make up your car's Vehicle Identification number, or VIN. It's kind of like the Social Security number for the car.

"You just copy that VIN number down and then you go create a VIN. You make your own VIN plate," says Woods.

Auto theft cops call it cloning. Add a faked title and cloned VIN to a stolen vehicle and you've got a sale that might look good, but it isn't.

Sergeant Keith Kucifer has an eagle eye for the bad VIN's. One truck caught his eye enough lot to look for other evidence.

The victims are hit on both sides -- the stolen number and the unsuspecting buyer of the cloned vehicle.

"Just because I as the victim, may have purchased it "legitimately" and paid $15,000 for it doesn't give me the right to keep stolen property," says Kucifer.

Police will seize the property and the money is already gone. Cloned cars turn up everywhere.

"I've even gotten phone calls from Canada saying 'Hey would you go check these vehicles in Texas because we've got vehicles that are registered up here,' yet we are showing a valid registration in Texas," says Kucifer.

Fixing it requires a trip to the Department of Transportation in Austin.

"Give them another VIN. Put another VIN back on their vehicle," says Kucifer.

This all happens just because a vehicle was parked in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Police say you can protect yourself on the buyer's side by making sure you know the background of who is selling you a vehicle.

Getting a car fax report on any potential purchase is also a good $15 investment.

Thanks to high resale values here in Texas, police say trucks and high end SUVs are especially susceptible to the scam.