October 28, 2003Auto theft scam uses consumer protection to get keysAll the thieves needed was his license plate number. They then headed to a self-serve kiosk set up by the Ontario government CBC News: Auto theft scam uses consumer protection to get keys Auto theft scam uses consumer protection to get keys TORONTO - Car thieves are taking advantage of a service that was meant to protect car buyers. Police say thieves in Ontario are legally getting reports on used vehicles to acquire keys for cars they?ve pre-selected. Police say thieves have had to adapt as car companies install more sophisticated anti-theft devices in their new cars. Many cars now won't start without new keys that come with a special chip called an immobilizer.
Thieves are going after older cars or driving off with your car after getting at the keys. It happened to Howard Lerner of Toronto. It took him months to figure out how his Audi was driven out of his regular parking spot in an underground garage. All the thieves needed was his license plate number. They then headed to a self-serve kiosk set up by the Ontario government. For a fee, they were able to pick up a used vehicle registration package, even though Lerner's car wasn't for sale. The package is designed to protect buyers of used cars. It's meant to allow people to check on the history of a car, to avoid liens or even to know if the car they're thinking of buying has ever been reported stolen. Armed with Lerner's data, the thief got an original copy of his car ownership, then got a real driver's license, with the thief's picture and Lerner's name on it. With that, the thief walked into an Audi dealership. He said he had lost his key and needed a new one. The dealership provided the key and the thief drove off with the car. Toronto police detective Bill Goetz says the thieves ran the scam like a business, the most sophisticated he's seen. "We found 123 different sets of keys," Goetz said. "Our approximate value on it was between four and six million dollars." One of the cars stolen was Lerner's. The police eventually arrested two men and laid 55 fraud-related charges. One of the men served 18 months in jail. The other was deported. When CBC News told the Ontario Ministry of Transport how the information has been used to steal dozens of cars, they said they'd check into it. In Toronto, four out of ten car thefts last year were cases where the thieves simply took the keys - either through fake ID or by breaking into houses and grabbing them. Posted by Craig at October 28, 2003 02:53 PM |