Fraud never takes a vacation, which is why this summer Équité Association is raising awareness about emerging insurance fraud trends. Équité’s 2025 First Half Auto Theft Trend Report revealed that criminals continue to evolve their tactics to identify new funding opportunities in vehicle crime; resulting in 44% of private passenger vehicles stolen this year nationally unrecovered. Fraud always has a victim, through this awareness campaign, Équité and its property and casualty members, are helping to fight against insurance fraud and keep Canadians safe.

What Does re-VIN mean?

Every manufactured vehicle is provided a unique vehicle identification number (VIN). This VIN stays with the vehicle throughout its lifetime, and the number can track recalls, insurance registration and the history of the vehicle. Re-VINing is when criminals alter the original VIN to conceal the vehicle’s identity in order to sell them to unsuspecting customers.

Re-VIN Fraud Explained

As auto theft became more difficult thanks to Public Safety Canada’s National Action Plan on Combatting Auto Theft, including over $200 million investments from the federal government, Équité investigators are seeing thieves move to other types of auto crime, including re-VIN fraud. Re-VIN fraud can occur in different ways, including:

• ‍Replaced VIN: The original VIN is replaced with a new, fraudulent number to facilitate the illegal resale or export of the vehicle.
• ‍Cloned VIN: The criminal steals an existing VIN from another vehicle and repurposes it to a stolen car to then sell to an unsuspecting buyer.
• ‍Fictitious VIN: The VIN is made-up, and the vehicle has never been manufactured, then claimed as stolen.

How to Avoid Purchasing a Re-VINed Vehicle

1. Check the manufacturers’ recall site; if the VIN is fictitious there will be an invalid VIN response.
2. Purchase a used vehicle from a registered dealership.
3. Order a CARFAX report which will include important information, including if the vehicle has been reported stolen.
4. Ask the seller for a Used Vehicle Information Package from the Ministry of Transportation.
5. Google the VIN.
6. If the deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.
7. Due diligence: Do you know the seller? Are they asking for cash? Is the meeting spot for the purchase unusual?

What is being done to prevent re-VIN fraud?

On behalf of its insurance industry members, Équité:

• Is advocating for an effective National VIN Database which would connect all the provinces to detect and prevent re-VIN fraud.
• Is working and will continue to work with the Provincial Ministries of Transportation, offering expertise and support to build an effective Interprovincial Record Exchange and sharing information to combat re-VINning.
• Expert investigators examine suspected stolen, re-VINed vehicles to determine their true identity, at the request of our member companies or law enforcement

Combatting Insurance Fraud

On behalf of Canadian property and casualty insurers, Équité combats insurance crime by deploying advanced analytics, intelligence best practices, and coordinated investigations. Follow this campaign and future awareness articles on LinkedIn, @Équité Association and equiteassociation.com. To report information about insurance crime by phone (available 24/7), please call 1-877-422-TIPS (English) or 1-866-422-4331 (service en français). If you would like to remain anonymous, please call our partners at Crime Stoppers (available 24/7) at 1-800-222-TIPS.