Cloned and stolen vehicles flood used car market
Used car buyers have been warned of a sharp rise in cloned and stolen vehicles entering the used car market.
Used car sales exceeded 7.8 million last year, the highest total on record, while private car sale searches on Facebook have increased 23% year-on-year.
However, Scrap Car Comparison has reported a marked increase in the number of vehicles it is seeing with fake or tampered VIN numbers.
Matt Clamp, a used car expert, said: “The volume of cloned and stolen vehicles entering the private sales market right now is something we haven’t seen before.
“Used car demand is almost back to pre-pandemic levels, which is great for the market, but the way people are buying has changed and that’s where the danger is. More buyers are going straight to Facebook Marketplace and other private platforms, and fraudsters are exploiting it.”
Convincing
Clamp continued: “What concerns me most is how convincing these cars can look. We see vehicles come through every day at Scrap Car Comparison where everything appears legitimate on paper, but the moment we check the VIN in person, that’s where it unravels.
“The numbers don’t match, the stamp has been tampered with, or the code isn’t consistent across the car. That’s when you realise what you’re actually looking at.
“Any buyer can do this check themselves before handing over a single penny. It takes minutes and it could save you thousands. The people losing money to cloned car fraud aren’t doing anything wrong; they just don’t know this check exists. That’s what we want to change.”
