car cloning

pp.

Copying a car's license plate and vehicle identification number and applying them to a stolen car.

— car clone v., n.

— car cloner n.

Example Citation:

Car cloning is a growing problem but too little is being done to protect the person whose vehicle is cloned.

There was one man in Leeds who was sent a congestion charge bill even though he hadn't been to London.

— Steve Boggan, "My day as a car clone cheat," The Evening Standard (London), August 19, 2003

Earliest Citation:

There are two main ways of unloading a stolen car on to the market. Until recently the most common form was known as ringing, whereby a stolen car has the identity of a wreck from the dump grafted on to it. But now the criminal market has invented a new method of "disappearing" a stolen vehicle — cloning. Car cloning involves taking the identity of a legitimate vehicle and putting it on the stolen car.

— Nadia Raafat, "Wheels: Autoparts," The Guardian, September 26, 1996

Related Words:

bait car

competitive teardown

curbsider

cut and shut

e-fence

phantom accident

reVIN

Categories:

Cars

Crime