FBI Busts 'Car Cloning' Ring
The criminal enterprise operated by stealing cars and replacing key pieces of information, like the VIN, license plate and other tags and stickers, with legal versions from similar models. If the cars were sold and later discovered stolen, both consumers and banks had to eat the cost of financing a piece of stolen property.
Cloned vehicles were sold in 20 states and several countries. The cars were also sometimes exchanged for drugs. Law enforcement made major breakthroughs thanks to the National Motor Vehicle Information System, implemented in January, which allows state DMVs to share information about car titles and registrations.
Common sense should tell you to be very careful about buying a car independently, and that if a car price seems too good to be true, it probably is.
