What is VIN cloning? Here's what you should know

HOUSTON - A Houston family contacted us when they couldn't renew the registration on their pick-up truck.  A similar truck had been registered in another state using their Vehicle Identification Number, or VIN.

Houston police say they see cases of what's called VIN cloning about once a week and that it can have serious financial consequences.

Juan Herrera and his family bought the truck when it was brand new in 2022.

"It’s a real nice truck. It's never been in an accident. Everything is perfect on it," he told us.  

They registered it with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles in 2022 without any problems.  

But this year, their registration renewal was blocked.

"In April, an insurance claim was made, and it was totaled.  In May, it was sold at auction.  I went, 'Wait a minute.  That’s impossible. We’ve had this truck all this time,'" said Herrera.

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Herrera discovered the VIN from his truck had been used in Florida to register another pickup truck of the same make, model, and color.  But that truck was listed as "totaled" and was posted for sale on multiple online vehicle selling platforms.

Herrera showed us one of the sale listings, which showed the exact VIN as the one on his truck.

To help clear up the mess, we contacted the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, which says it then contacted Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.  TxDMV says FHSMV then "confirmed the Florida title was invalid."

Lt. Tolan Harding, who leads the Houston Police Department's Auto Theft Division, says VIN duplicates can sometimes be clerical errors, but that VIN cloning is a serious problem.  

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VIN cloning, he explained, is when criminals want to sell stolen or totaled vehicles and find VINs for similar vehicles online to pull it off.  He says they find them because most vehicle VINs appear online in sale listings or vehicle databases.  

"They’re finding another vehicle that’s very similar, cloning the VIN, and putting that VIN on the stolen car," said Harding.

That vehicle is then sold to an unsuspecting buyer.  The owner of the real vehicle assigned to the VIN may find that they cannot register or sell it due to the duplicate VIN, or that the crooks have taken out a title loan against the car.

"There may be registration problems because one state says we’re not going to register your car anymore because it’s registered in a second state," said Harding.  

Those registration problems are now resolved for the Herreras.

"Once I got the message from you to go ahead and follow up to get it done to see if it went through, she went the following day, and she got it," said Herrera, showing us the new registration stickers.

The National Motor Vehicle Title Information System records VINs to prevent duplicates.  So we asked FHSMV how it registered the truck despite the VIN already being registered in Texas, and whether this was an error or a case of VIN cloning.  We haven't heard back yet.

To help protect your VIN from cloning, police say you can cover the VIN under your dashboard windshield, and don't post or give the VIN out more than is necessary when selling the vehicle.

But police say, in reality, many VINs can be found online.  You can use a search engine, such as Google, to look up your VIN online.  If the vehicle appears to be registered in another state, listed for sale, or totaled, those are red flags for VIN cloning. Also, watch your mail for parking tickets or toll bills that you don't recognize.

The TxDMV says anyone experiencing VIN cloning should report it to them right away.