The fight against Canada’s worst-ever auto theft epidemic has largely focused on ramping up inspections at shipping ports, where organized crime groups have exported the overwhelming majority of stolen vehicles.
But criminals are adapting, police say, by increasingly selling hot vehicles in Canada to unsuspecting buyers with little protection, exploiting a weakness in provincial registration systems that veteran investigators argue needs to be fixed.
But criminals are replacing the VIN plate, often with one from a comparable vehicle that has been totalled, legally exported or one registered in another province or U.S. state. They may go through junkyards, export records or simply walk through a mall parking lot to find a VIN to clone.
Not a lot you can do, install multiple tracking system like Tag, then one of your own (aliexpress has cheap GPS tracer, you need to put a sim card in it with a 10$ SMS plan or something), an apple tag, a kill switch well hidden, and a club steering wheel lock, you can also put a OBD2 secured cap to annoy thieves a few minutes more.
But if your car is a truck or RAV4 or Tacoma or Tahoe etc, it will be stolen, if you are lucky they will find it before it goes in Montreal port and you will get it back, then after 3 or 4 times your insurer will drop you, or thieves will successfully steal it.
Police/Government do about nothing, a car is stolen every 5 minutes.