Do you know what a cloned vehicle is?
Vehicle cloning is an illegal practice where criminals steal a legally registered vehicle's identity and use it to hide the identity of another vehicle.
Here's how it works:
• Criminals use a vehicle identification number (VIN) from a legally registered car to hide the identity of a stolen or salvaged vehicle.
• The cloned car may be the same color as the genuine one to make it harder to identify.
• The stolen car might be sold to unsuspecting customers or used for other illicit purposes.
Red flags that may be an indication of this scam:
• Beware of damage around the VIN number area or windshield.
• Search the VIN in a VIN search system.
• The VIN that the OBD2 scanner pulls is different than the VIN on the vehicle.
• The vehicle may have an aftermarket key fob.
For more information on cloned vehicles and suggestions on safeguarding oneself against falling prey to this fraudulent practice, be sure to watch the video.