How to spot a cloned car

A cloned car is a stolen car wearing a false identity. Criminals find a legal car of the same make, model and colour, copy its number plates, and put them on the stolen one. To anyone looking at the plates, including a quick online check, it looks like a perfectly normal car.

That's what makes cloning so nasty. If you buy a cloned car, it will eventually be traced and returned to its real owner or their insurer, and you'll lose both the car and the money you paid.

Why a plate check alone isn't enough

When you check a cloned car's registration, you're checking the legal car it's copied. So the check can come back clean. That's why the most important step is making sure the car in front of you is the car on the record, and the way to do that is the VIN.

Match the VIN

Every car has a 17-character Vehicle Identification Number. It's stamped into the body and printed in several places, and it's also on the V5C logbook. On a cloned car, the VIN on the car won't match the VIN on the paperwork for the plates it's wearing, or the VIN plates will show signs of tampering.

• Find the VIN at the bottom of the windscreen, on the door pillar and, on many cars, stamped under the bonnet or under a flap in the floor.
• Check every one matches the others, and matches the V5C, character for character.
• Look for scratched, re-stamped or stuck-on VIN plates, and for tampering around them.

Not sure where to look? Our guide to VIN numbers shows the usual places.

Check the V5C logbook

• It should be the original, not a copy. Hold it up to the light and check for the "DVL" watermark.
• The keeper's name and address should be the person and place you're buying from. View the car at that address, not in a car park or lay-by.
• The engine size, colour and other details on the V5C should match the car.

Other warning signs

• The price is well below similar cars.
• The seller wants cash and wants it quickly.
• They can't answer basic questions about the car's history, or only have one key.
• The service history or MOT mileages don't fit the car. Our MOT check is free.
• Recent plate changes. A number plate history check shows every registration the car has carried.

If you think a car is cloned

Don't buy it, and don't confront the seller. Walk away and report it to the police on 101. If you've already bought a car and think it might be cloned, read what to do if you bought a stolen car.