Explain how vehicle cloning is carried out, who the typical perpetrators are, and how this crime may be linked to other crimes

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The NICB describes vehicle cloning as a crime in which stolen vehicles assume the identity of legally owned, or "nonstolen," vehicles of a similar make and model.
Criminals apply counterfeit labels, plates, stickers, and titles to these stolen cars, making them appear legitimate. The nonstolen vehicles can be actively registered or titled in another state or country, resulting in multiple vehicles having the same VIN
being simultaneously registered or titled—but, of course, only the nonstolen vehicles are legitimate. The rest are fakes, or clones.

The first step in the cloning process is to copy a VIN from a legally owned car. Then the criminal steals a vehicle similar to the one from which the VIN had been lifted. The stolen vehicle's legitimate VIN is replaced with a counterfeit one, making the stolen vehicle a clone of the legally owned original vehicle. The criminal then creates counterfeit ownership documents and sells the stolen vehicle to an innocent buyer.

High-end luxury cars are the usual targets of cloning. Cadillac Escalades, Lexus RX 300s, and BMW 5 Series are among the models most widely reported by local detectives. Vehicle cloning is typically committed by organized rings of professional vehicle thieves and fraud artists.

Compounding the cloning problem is that many cloned vehicles are used for illegal operations. One source noted that "Savvy criminals are using some of the country's most credible logos, including FedEx, Walmart, Direct TV and the U.S. Border Patrol to create fake trucks for smuggling drugs, money, and illegal aliens" (Ross, 2008).