Are you stealing cars without knowing it?

The Street ^ | 10-8-2014

[KeyLargo]

Are you stealing cars without knowing it?

10/08/14 -

Here's another reason to protect your identity -- car thieves are stealing personal information to buy new vehicles directly from dealerships, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB).

The bureau says crooks have been frustrated by late-model cars with advanced safeguards that make hot-wiring difficult. But resourceful thieves are now using stolen IDs and fake driver's licenses to purchase or lease vehicles, which they then sell after changing vehicle identification numbers (VINs).

"It's comparable to a hacker stealing IDs," explains Joe Wehrle, the NICB president and CEO, in a written statement. "You don't know you're a victim until it's too late. Most of these thefts don't show up in traditional crime reporting numbers and become financial losses for lenders, car rental companies and others. The result is millions of dollars added to the cost of doing business, which is ultimately passed on to consumers."

The bureau says it recently worked with police in Brown Deer, Wis., to smash an ID theft ring operating out of Detroit. Verita Hines-Flagg, 54, from Belleville, Mich., was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and aggravated identify theft. Benjamin Hines, 29 and from Detroit, received an 18-month sentence on the same charges, according to the NICB.

"The crooks used stolen IDs to fraudulently lease five vehicles worth more than $300,000, which they later planned to sell," Wehrle says.

In addition to the vehicles, the bureau says police recovered five phony Michigan driver's licenses, the personal information of "several identity theft victims" and more than $20,000 in stolen goods.

The NICB contends that the case is not isolated. Such crimes are increasing but tend to be reported by police as financial fraud, not as direct auto thefts.....

[KeyLargo]

http://www.nicbblog.org/

[Prospero]

Those new "Driverless Cars" are going to be a hoot for thieves, eh?

(Got to come up with a better moniker than "driverless car." It's among the most noneuphonious phrases employed for "horseless carriages" since "automobile." Thus, car.)

[MNDude]

I’m very relieved to see my Chevy Volt is not on that list.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***to purchase or lease vehicles, which they then sell after changing vehicle identification numbers (VINs). ***

Then drive them down to Arkansas where you can (for $50.00) purchase a nice clean clear title, then park it and sell it to some unsuspecting soul. Arkansas has been doing this to salvage vehicles for years.

[minnesota_bound]

Beware shady mechanics too.

I sold my 1992 Honda Accord back in May after it broke down (cracked engine block). The car repair place gave me $250. I told him he would make more money selling the parts then I could selling the whole car. He just laughed and said no....

Well he may have as I discovered when a letter from the police 4 months later said “my car” was towed to an impound lot. I gathered up the paperwork I had that included the DMV change of title and emailed it over to the lot. The lady I talked to said this has happened before and that I did not have to worry about the $48/day storage that would have added up to some $2,300 by the time it was auctioned off.

It turns out the shop had sold my “repaired” car to an illegal with no driver’s license. When he was pulled over he just abandoned it as he had no paperwork.

I hope that shop had to pay!