Identity theft with classic cars
10/25/2017
The topic of "identity theft" is hotly debated on the Internet and in films these days. A person assumes the identity of another person in order to conduct business or enrich themselves in their name.
What works for people using stolen credit cards and misused identity documents can also be found around old cars. Identity theft also occurs with classic cars.
It works like this: an old car is given a new/false identity using the identity documents of another car. The corresponding chassis numbers that match the new papers are stamped in and then all the necessary hurdles (H/veteran registration, expert opinion, FIVA certificate, etc.) are taken.
Why would you do this? Let's assume someone has put a lot of effort into turning a Porsche 911 T (market value around EUR 80,000) into a 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Lightweight clone. He gets hold of the papers of an RS that was scrapped decades ago and adopts its identity for his clone. The EUR 100,000 car became a EUR 600,000 car.
In fact, a brisk trade in identity papers is flourishing. However, luxury classic cars are just the tip of the iceberg; the majority of documents traded on eBay, for example, are for normal everyday cars. But here too, "new" papers can make life easier for an old car or its owner, for example when registration is made easier, when an import becomes a locally delivered car, when it is a stolen vehicle or when the original papers are simply missing.
Of course, this is all abusive and illegal. But identity swapping is also an outrage against history and an attack on the automobile as a cultural asset, as motor journalist and author Helmut Horn recently explained in a lecture at the Hamburg Motor Classics. After all, a vehicle that may not have a history worth mentioning of its own is also attributed with false previous owners and perhaps even a racing history.
Criminal motives are not always the cause of such identity theft. Some vehicle owners believe they are in a self-defense situation. They have bought a supposed original for expensive money, later realize that it is a recreation and solve the problem by giving the replica the identity of an original. Of course, there is still no old piece of sheet metal on the car, but the papers identify it as a cultural asset. And only in this way is it perhaps eligible for registration and can actually be driven. But the end does not justify the means!
Incidentally, Helmut Horn has proposed a number of countermeasures, for example that offering vehicle identities should be punished as incitement to commit a crime, that manipulated vehicles should be withdrawn from circulation, that databases should be kept on vehicles that can be proven to no longer exist, that backdating should be prevented and that more care should be taken when checking vehicle identities. However, as we all know, none of this is that easy and the link between a car and its history and proof of identity is usually only established via a few small stamped-in marks or a sticker in the engine compartment.
