Car buyers warned about cloning risk
This week is National Identity Fraud Awareness week and car buyers have been warned that it is not just their identity at risk.
Car buyers need to be aware of identity thieves operating in the used car market, claims credit reference agency Experian, with car cloning estimated to cost the country around £140 million per year.
Car cloning usually involves thieves giving a stolen car the identity of a legitimate vehicle by forging the vehicle identification number (VIN) which acts as its fingerprint and duping buyers into believing the car is genuine.
Experian said that car buying was still an emotional and expensive process for many consumers. It is also one of the most popular reasons for taking out a personal loan.
They also said that once the car had been bought, it was too late to do anything about it if it was a fraud, as the car did not legally belong to the buyer even though they had paid for it and it could be repossessed and returned to the original owner.
As vehicle history checks alone could not identify cloned cars, buyers should be on their guard and look out for any suspect details when buying a car.
These included being asked to meet the vendor at a neutral location, suggesting they did not want the buyer to know where they lived, being asked to pay by cash, or prices that seemed a little too good to be true.
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