As of this week, the Canada Border Services Agency is taking steps that could help close what some experts call a loophole that has made it easier for thieves to disguise stolen vehicles.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!CBC Toronto has learned that as of Tuesday, CBSA has begun sharing some vehicle export data with CARFAX and Équité Association, and is exploring the possibility of sharing it with other stakeholders, too.
It is unclear exactly how CARFAX, a company that provides vehicle history reports, and Équité Association, a non-profit insurance fraud watchdog, will be using the CBSA data, but it could signal improvements in catching stolen vehicles.
Experts say vehicle identification numbers (VINs) on legally exported vehicles are highly sought after by criminals, who clone the unique serial number — typically found in several locations, including the dashboard — and put it on a stolen vehicle in Canada, also known as re-VINing. With no way for dealers, buyers or provincial ministries to verify if a vehicle has been exported, some well-disguised stolen vehicles have been slipping through the cracks undetected.
The Used Car Dealers Association of Ontario has been calling on the CBSA for more than a year to make exported VIN information available. The organization’s executive director says sharing the data with CARFAX is a good start, though he says more can be done to make the information available to others.
The ‘massive’ problem of re-VINing
Police and governments across the country have been working to crack down on auto theft, which has ballooned in recent years. Between 2021 and 2023, it increased by close to a third, reaching a high of 70,475 incidents, according to statistics from the Équité Association. Policing and policy efforts appear to be making a difference, with car thefts down 18.6 per cent between 2023 and 2024.
Experts say there are three main uses for stolen vehicles. Some are illegally exported; others are taken apart and used for parts. The rest are re-VINed.
“The numbers are massive. And we’re not seeing it just limited to passenger vehicles,” said Det. Greg O’Connor with Peel Regional Police in Ontario.
O’Connor says that in just the past year, his police force has investigated close to 300 re-VINed vehicles, which also includes transport trucks.
Cloning VINs from legally exported vehicles is the preference for criminals, says Bryan Gast, vice-president of investigative services with Équité Association.
“They know that that was a legitimate VIN when it left, and the likelihood of it coming back to Ontario is extremely remote,” said Gast, who previously worked in law enforcement for three decades.
Det. Dan Kraehling, with Toronto Police, says criminals typically source exported VINs by finding online open source import data from other countries.
“[It’s] out of ease more than anything,” Kraehling said. “They can pull them straight off of websites and use them for re-VINing purposes.”
Some re-VINed stolen vehicles are used by criminals to commit other crimes, while others are sold, sometimes ending up in the hands of unsuspecting customers.
Fraud ‘can fool even experts’
While there are often signs that a vehicle might be stolen, Sam Cosentino says it “absolutely” happens that dealers can be duped by stolen cars, even with due diligence.
“[These] are very elaborate frauds and can fool even experts in the market and professionals in the marketplace,” said Cosentino, the director of enforcement at the Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council (OMVIC), which regulates vehicle sales in Ontario.
Garry Letichever, owner of Toronto used car dealership Quest Auto Group, says he encounters fraudulent VINs on a near weekly basis. While he has caught most, he says a few have slipped through.
“Every time that happens, I bleed. We take it very, very personally,” Letichever said.
WATCH | How ‘re-VINed’ cars are fooling industry experts:
New CBSA data sharing could help with car theft crackdown
Lack of information about exported vehicles has made it easier for thieves to clone their Vehicle Identification Numbers, and disguise stolen vehicles in Canada. CBC’s Sarah MacMillan reports.
The customer could eventually end up having the car seized by police, and their insurance deemed invalid, once police discover it is in fact a stolen vehicle.
There is a compensation fund administered by OMVIC, which provides protection for customers who buy through a licensed dealer. But if you buy privately, you could be out of luck.
CBSA cites privacy concerns
James Hamilton, executive director of the Used Car Dealers Association of Ontario, which represents nearly 5,000 members, first contacted CBSA in April 2024, asking the federal agency to share exported VIN information with his association.
Hamilton says his association does not want all exported VINs to be available publicly, but rather as a tool that dealers could use to search a specific VIN, to see if it is a match to an exported vehicle.
In responses to Hamilton last summer as well as earlier this month, the CBSA cited privacy concerns, and said it considers VINs personal information. In the context of exports, the agency said exported VINs are considered customs information under the Customs Act, and cannot be shared.
Hamilton takes issue with the privacy concern, a view shared by Cosentino, who said it makes “absolutely no sense” to him.
“They are a public display, and in fact, your VIN is on your dashboard. That’s available to anybody who walks by your car,” Cosentino said.
In a statement to CBC, Luke Reimer, a CBSA spokesperson, said the “risk of fraud outweigh the potential benefits” of creating a searchable database that could be used to check if a VIN had been exported.
However Reimer said the CBSA has begun to share “some VIN information” with CARFAX and Équité Association, after working together to ” to enable a secure way to transmit this sensitive information.”
CARFAX offers vehicle history searches, starting at $54.95 for a single search. In an email to CBC, the company said its data sources are confidential, and would not confirm how it will use the CBSA data. The media relations director for Équité Association also said it could not comment on specific data usage.
Reimer said the first transmission of that data happened on Tuesday this week.
Hamilton said he is glad to hear that some information is being shared, but argues his association should also have access, in particular so it can offer searches at low to no cost for its members.
“Data is our friend if we use it for good purposes,” Hamilton said.
Reimer said CBSA is “exploring ways to responsibly share more information with other stakeholders.”