Vehicle Cloning

The practice of altering a stolen vehicle's identification, most commonly by replacing its license plates and falsifying its vehicle identification number, to match those of a legitimately registered vehicle of the same make, model and color, so the stolen vehicle can be resold, re-registered, or driven without immediately appearing as stolen in a routine records check. Vehicle cloning is documented as a distinct offense from ordinary motor vehicle theft in that its purpose is specifically to launder a stolen vehicle's identity for resale or continued use rather than to strip it for parts or use it briefly and abandon it, and it has also been documented as a technique used to commit further offenses, such as toll evasion or a traffic violation, while shifting the recorded liability onto the innocent owner of the vehicle whose identity was cloned.