CGI's VINCheck Branding Service allows access to branding information from 26 registry and police service databases spanning all provinces and all territories across Canada. This service allows insurers to do a thorough background check on all vehicles to determine if a vehicle is branded stolen, salvaged, unfit for the road or non-repairable. This service also identifies if a unique VIN is simultaneously registered in multiple provinces - a definite red flag for "cloned" vehicle automobile theft.

It is very easy to register vehicles having undesirable brand status in other provinces because each provincial registry only accesses branding information from within their own province. This means that without VINCheck, vehicles with undesirable brand status can easily be insured through out the country. Underwriters can prevent these vehicles from becoming part of their book of business by querying VIN Check when adding or substituting vehicles from out of province or a U.S. State. In particular, higher end sports cars and sports utility vehicles, which are often the clone vehicle choice for criminals, should be validated. This service also allows special investigative and claims units to investigate any vehicle that they believe to be suspicious in nature.

Cloned Vehicles

Enterprising criminals continue to invent new scams to defraud insurers. One innovative vehicle theft scheme involves the use of counterfeit documents to aid in the sale of stolen vehicles, which are often exported to foreign countries. The practice is known as "vehicle cloning".

How Vehicle Cloning Works

• An individual writes down a vehicle identification number (VIN) from a legally owned and documented vehicle sitting in a parking lot or dealership.
• The legitimate VIN is then used in a counterfeit VIN tag - sometimes more than once.
• A similar vehicle is stolen and the legitimate VIN tag on the vehicle is replaced with the counterfeit VIN tag. Bearing a counterfeit tag, the stolen vehicle is now a "clone" of the legitimate one and can be sold without detection by government agenies.
• Ownership documents for the cloned vehicle are counterfeited or obtained under false pretenses.
• The phony documentation is used to sell the vehicle with its cloned identity to an innocent purchaser.