Toronto, Ontario — Buyer beware; reports have begun circulating that vehicle thieves have been “re-vinning” stolen vehicles in order to sell to unsuspecting customers.
According to a report from Canadian Underwriter, insurers have taken note of a new trend prevailing among car thieves looking to turn a profit. Re-vinning involves removing the VIN (vehicle identification number) sticker from the front dash of the vehicle and replacing it with a similar-looking fake sticker.
This trend was brought to light by Équité Association, a new company that has absorbed the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s (IBC) investigative services wing.
Vice-president of investigative services at Équité Association, Bryan Gast delved into a number of rising theft trends in an interview on Tuesday, alongside the release of the association’s Top 10 Stolen Vehicles in Canada list.
“You’ll really get double victimized when you’ve paid money for a vehicle, then you won’t get that money back,” Gast said.
“And then once it’s determined to be a stolen vehicle, that vehicle is going to be seized, [so you’ll] be without your vehicle, too.”
In Ontario, vehicle sellers legally need to provide a used vehicle information package that contains the vehicle and its history in the province.
This year’s most stolen vehicle in Canada is the Ford F-series of pickup trucks, most often of the 2018 model year.
