PSA: Fake CLONED plates explained…how you can be a victim

CarExpert

Have you heard of a ‘cloned plate’ and wondered what this is? Paul Maric takes you through how cloned plates work and why you could easily become a victim without even knowing it.   We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #stolen #crime #numberplates

Transcript

00:00G'day, I'm Paul. We've shot a stack of videos now on the huge uptick in thefts of late model

00:05Holdens, HSVs, in fact just cars in general in Victoria but it's happening all across Australia

00:11specifically with youth crime as well. Today I want to focus on a topic of cloned registration

00:17plates and you know after joining some of these Facebook groups to get all of the information I

00:22need on the stolen Holdens I've been inundated with like messages from these groups and all the

00:27stuff that's happening and clone plates is one of the things that thieves are using to get away with

00:32driving stolen cars on the road for such a long time without the police doing so I'm going to run

00:36you through how it all works and the things to look out for. Now while we were researching this I mean

00:41you couldn't even script this here at work a car pulled up and I saw the two people getting out of

00:47the car and the way that it was parked they were like frantic and it just looked like junkies they

00:52just looked like they were probably about to steal something. Anyway I had a look at the rego on the

00:57car and I ran it through the VicRoads website which tells you whether the car is stolen or what's

01:02going on with it and according to the VicRoads site it had current registration and everything

01:06was fine it wasn't listed as stolen so I was just like eh whatever I'll just get on with life they're

01:11probably just you know super excited to be unloading all the stuff from their car and just being weird

01:16in the corner of the car park and Sean video man Sean came out like 30 minutes later and I called him

01:22I said it was just so weird I saw this car in the car park and anyway when he came out they were

01:28loading what we believe to be stolen items into the vehicle from a business just nearby and by this time

01:36the police were called and they had driven off but Sean had the foresight to take a few photos of the car

01:42and we then when we had a closer look at them realized what was going on and first dead giveaway here

01:49what is the reason of clone plates first so if you go out and steal a car immediately or shortly

01:55after the owner is going to call the police and say hey my car's stolen it was taken today this is

02:00what happened they will then log it as a stolen vehicle and when you go to the VicRoads site you

02:05look up the rego it comes up with something totally different it says that it's stolen so if the police

02:09with AMPR that's automatic rather number plate recognition drive past your vehicle your stolen

02:16vehicle it will pop up on their computer they'll flick a u-turn and be able to intercept the vehicle

02:20but to avoid detection what thieves are doing is stealing a vehicle and immediately or shortly after

02:27changing the registration plates now in this particular case here with this Golf what these

02:32guys have done they've stolen that car that car is stolen but what they've done is they've found

02:37a sort of bronze colored Volkswagen Golf of a similar age and cloned the number plate and that means

02:43they've taken the registration plate off the vehicle they've seen driving down the road typically

02:47they'll look at the driver and just make sure that it is like a driver that is going to pay their bills

02:52continuously because then they can reproduce that registration plate put it on their stolen vehicle

02:58and if a police car drives past that vehicle all they're going to see is that it's it's a it's a

03:03bronze colored Golf that's currently registered they won't think anything of it but you can always look a

03:08little bit closer and the first dead giveaway is here so beneath that white sheet of paper there

03:13is the vehicle's vid that is a 17 digit code that is unique to every single car and typically they're

03:20visible on the outside here and they're visible then on other parts of the body that basically identify

03:26that vehicle so that if it's ever lost or stolen or whatever you can trace its movements what they've

03:31done here is put some receipts there so to the naked eye it just looks like someone who's just lobbed a

03:36whole bunch of receipts on their dashboard but what they've done is they've covered up the vin so that

03:40if you were to see this car parked on the side of the road like we did you can't see the vin and you

03:45can't determine for certainty that it's stolen if you were able to see that vin or get another vin from

03:50the vehicle and run it through that vic road site you could actually see immediately that it's stolen

03:54because someone would have reported this stolen then what they've done is gone and made their own

03:58registration plates and the first giveaway here is the one it looks completely wrong so i'll show you

04:04an example here the right hand side of the picture is off a vehicle that we're driving at the moment

04:08in the car park you can see the one is quite defined whereas the one on their homemade registration plate

04:14has rounded edges to it the vic on the left hand side is different as well the the e is quite thin too

04:21so there's a number of issues here that perhaps you wouldn't notice if you just drove past the vehicle

04:25but when you do have a look at it closer you do notice it and if you type back in with the stolen

04:30uh hsvs and holdens this is one that that someone uh posted on a stolen cars page i mean this person

04:37hasn't even gone to any effort here to create a registration plate this just looks completely

04:43dodgy the issue that they have here though is that with all of these plates typically they don't reflect

04:48when there's light against them and that is the easiest way to tell if a registration plate is fake

04:53that when it has light uh shone on it it doesn't reflect and it's something that they use to avoid speed

04:59cameras and all that sort of stuff so what they're now doing is these thieves learn very quickly

05:04they're basically taking these dodgy plates that they make at home and what they're doing is they're

05:07applying layers of reflective tape on the sections that require the letters and numbers and they're

05:12getting them laser printed and there was a lady that had her car recovered that was stolen and she

05:17posted this to a facebook group we thank her for letting us use this footage um she basically said

05:22that when she got the car recovered that she found all of this material on there and was able to

05:27have a close look at it and she was in the business of screen screenwriting or printing or something

05:31like that and was able to identify the material so they're now going to extra lengths here and from

05:36what we've heard they're actually getting these produced at the markets uh these plates are typically

05:41produced in in prisons they keep the the prisoners ironically quite busy making registration plates for

05:46cars but um these particular fake plates can actually be bought at markets and other places illegally so

05:52it is just fascinating and one of the things they're doing to overcome this issue overseas is

05:57with digital plates and we've seen these in california before where the plate itself looks perfectly normal

06:02but it's typically solar powered and it receives information wirelessly so if a car is stolen that

06:09registration plate can immediately be changed to say stolen vehicle or something completely different

06:14and it's one that is very hard to to change because it is entirely digital so i think there's a long way to go

06:20here in in victoria and in australia in general for vicroad specifically they actually sold off the

06:25registration uh the plates division to a third party company and uh they they announced a couple of

06:31years ago i think it was before the sale that they're adding uh this other sort of reflection

06:35technology that when you look at the plate from a diagonal angle that it sort of comes up with

06:39different um different symbols on it uh but that only applies to your general issue plates like your

06:44your ones and your twos these slimline plates don't have any of that technology and this has been going around

06:49for for quite some time now there is no easy fix and i said this in the other video it really just

06:54frustrates me that if you or i uh forget to pay our rego or something like that you will get nailed

06:59with like a 900 fine you will be chased by the courts because you're an honest person you'll pay that

07:05you'll pay all the fees and and whatever whereas these people like the fact that these guys in broad

07:11daylight were emptying this car on the ground went and stole some other stuff and just do not care

07:19just tells you that that the laws are so weak that even if they did get caught they would probably

07:23just get bail and then they'd be on their merry way as well so anyway uh it's just a short video

07:28to explain cloned plates and and how to spot them if you see them out on the road if you do spot them

07:33let the police know because they will contact the owner of a vehicle like this that that gold golf and

07:39they'll say to them hey your car is being used for this the only time they're able to actually

07:43know that this is happening is in the original owner of that car and those plates

07:47is that they start getting fines in the mail saying you know you were speeding on this freeway that

07:52you've never been to and you look at the picture and like hold on that's my car but i wasn't there

07:57they then call the police and they explain to them that they're cloned plates but if the thieves are

08:01being smart they won't speed they won't get parking fines and they'll get away with driving a car like

08:05this for months on end and then if they ever do get caught or the rego gets cancelled they'll just go

08:09find another gold golf which is probably lots of and just cloned another plate so

08:13unfortunately it is a thing that is going to keep happening so anyway let me know your thoughts in

08:17the comments section below it is crazy what's going on at the moment and the volume of this crime

08:22that's going on is there an easy way to stop it let me know what you reckon do you have any other

08:26stories you want to share as well has this happened to you i'm keen to hear let me know in the comments

08:30section below if you did enjoy this video please make sure you like it you share it with your mates

08:34if you haven't done so already subscribe to our channel but until next time take it easy

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