What are twin cars and why are they created?
A duplicate is a car that is created to match an existing car that has the same make, color, model, license plates and body number. Copies are created in order to avoid paying fines from cameras for traffic violations. Drivers put fake license plates on their cars that belong to another car of the same make, color and model. If the driver of the double breaks the rules on the road, fines from cameras are sent to the owner of the original car.
Also, with the help of a copy, criminals hide the fact of theft or illegal import into the country. If a car is stolen or illegally imported into Russia, it must be legalized. To do this, scammers look for a car with the same parameters as the stolen one and copy its data from the title.
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How to avoid falling for the seller's trick
A car double is mainly an acquisition for those citizens who are trying to save as much as possible on purchasing a used vehicle. By purchasing a car that is an order of magnitude lower in cost than typical models, the buyer unknowingly exposes himself to a huge risk. You should not trust sellers who underestimate the cost of their vehicle, citing solely the urgency of the transaction. Most often, the cost of a car with fake documents is 40% cheaper than its legitimate counterpart.
There are also cases when a duplicate car is sold by the same unfortunate owner, who openly tells the future owner about the presence of such a problem. In this case, it is up to the buyer to decide whether to refuse or agree to purchase a machine that entails a serious risk.
In such a situation, no one can give any guarantees; a person can drive such a vehicle for many years without any hardships, but, on the other hand, he can be stopped by traffic police officers for an inspection the next day after purchase. If all the ins and outs of the car come to light, you will only have to blame yourself for haste and thoughtlessness.
How to understand that the purchased car is a double
It is very difficult to determine that the car you are buying is a duplicate. By punching a car through the database, you will see the history of the original. Even if you are stopped by traffic police inspectors, they will not be able to understand that your car is a twin. Only forensic examination can establish the fact of twinning.
You will drive a car, suspecting nothing, until you start receiving fines from cameras for violations that you did not commit, or the original gets into an accident or is deregistered.
At the same time, your violations will also be sent to the original car. If the owner of the original disputes the fines and it turns out that they were earned by a double, that is, your car, you will become a defendant in a criminal case.
In the video you can see how to determine a broken VIN code of a car:
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Creating machines with “one face”
It is quite difficult to forge documents that in the future will not raise questions either from the traffic police officers or from future owners. Sellers resort to all sorts of frauds that require special courage and great cunning from a person. A person who is sufficiently informed applies to any traffic police department with a request to issue new documents for a certain car that were allegedly lost. Even though this is a legend, no one can verify it. True, even such a trick can punish the seller. When one of the owners of twin cars deregisters his vehicle, the remaining twins automatically cease to exist, they will simply drop out of the traffic police database.
It is from this moment that huge problems can begin for other owners. All the shortcomings that were hidden by hook or by crook begin to emerge. It is enough to just contact the MREO once or stop for a check on the highway (more recently, inspectors have been stopping random cars to run license plates through the database) and the owner will get into big trouble, and the car will be sent to the impound lot. Then everything will be even more “interesting”, since the owner of the car will undergo a whole process of all kinds of checks and proceedings, which can continue for six months. The main problem is that a person who unknowingly purchased a twin car will not be protected by law; he will have to bear responsibility for driving the “twin”, which is his property.
It is worth noting that troubles will appear even for those people who own cars that require complete legal purity. Motorists who do not even assume that they have identical license plates and the existence of a double will be held accountable to the traffic police on the same basis as those who falsified their documents. Often it is innocent vehicle owners who must pay fines for offenses they did not commit. Most people are not inclined to contact the traffic police to sort out the problem that has arisen, but this behavior is not the most appropriate option.
What are the dangers of buying a duplicate car?
If the original gets into an accident, you will receive a summons to court, where you will have to prove that it was not you who caused the accident. If the original is deregistered, your car will disappear from the traffic police database. If it turns out that your car is not in the database, the car will be taken to the impound lot. Then a long trial will begin to establish the authenticity of the car.
A criminal case will be initiated under Article 326 of the Criminal Code for falsifying vehicle identification numbers, which carries a penalty of up to two years in prison. If you prove your innocence, the trial could drag on for years.
If you send a request to the investigator to release the car after the examinations, the car may be returned, but you will not be able to sell it or dismantle it. You will have to sell the car for parts or sell it for scrap.
If you try to sell a double, you will fall under Article 175 of the Criminal Code for selling an illegal car. The penalty is up to five years in prison. Even if you can sell the car, the fact of “duplicity” will be revealed when registering the car. The new owner will file a claim and involve the police. A criminal case will be opened under the above article for the sale of property obtained by criminal means.
In practice, it is difficult to get the car back. Essentially, you will lose both the car and the money you paid for it.
Also read: 5 signs that you should not buy a used car
What to do with the “understudy”
If the buyer discovers that he has purchased a “double”, there is no need to urgently try to sell the car. The new owner will have the same problems during registration, and the police will have questions not only for the first seller, but also for the penultimate owner.
“We can advise you to file a report with the police. The inspection materials will need to be used to prepare a claim for termination of the purchase and sale agreement or to declare such an agreement completely invalid, with a demand for the return of the money paid for the car,” said Orest Matsala. However, the reality is that within a couple of minutes after the transaction, the SIM card of the criminal seller is usually thrown away and the ability to communicate with him is lost.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to recognize the ownership of such a car and challenge the refusal of registration by a court decision. In the best case, the car will be returned without a license to operate, and all that will remain is to sell it for spare parts. What should owners of a car whose registration is legal, but there is a duplicate car?
As if they had replaced
Photo: RIA Novosti/Pavel Lisitsyn
“In this case, you should re-register the car and obtain a new vehicle registration certificate and new state registration plates,” advises Orest Matsala.
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How not to buy a double car
To avoid buying a duplicate car, use the following recommendations:
- Don't be fooled by the low price tag. If a car is suspiciously cheap, be wary: most likely, it is a bait. An elite foreign car will never be sold at the price of a LADA.
- Buy a car only from the owner. The owner’s passport data must match the data specified in the vehicle title and the purchase and sale agreement.
- Sign an agreement, not a power of attorney, and indicate in it the amount paid for the car.
- Take a forensic expert for the deal, who will confirm the authenticity of the markings of components and assemblies. You can contact a private expert or an organization specializing in forensic examinations. The cost of the service in Russian regions varies from 10 to 35 thousand rubles. We advise you not to skimp: it is better to pay a specialist than to lose money and a car and become a participant in criminal proceedings. The expert will check the authenticity of the VIN code and determine whether changes have been made to it. If they are found, it is better to refuse the purchase.
Pay attention to how the seller behaves. If he is nervous and refuses to provide documents, walk away from the deal. An honest seller will not interfere with inspections.
Also read: 7 “surprises” that will prevent you from registering a car after purchase
Without money and car
A resident of Usman (Lipetsk region) was left without 2 million rubles and a car, having fallen into a trap with a “double”. Having purchased a Kia Sorento from an ad on the free classifieds website, he decided to register the purchased car. But it turned out that exactly the same crossover was already registered elsewhere.
The purchase and sale agreement was drawn up in accordance with all the rules and indicating the passport details of both parties. But, as it turned out later at the police department, the seller’s passport was listed as lost and was not a document. Now law enforcement agencies are searching for the fraudster, and the crossover has been seized.
As if they had replaced
Photo: Depositphotos
“In this case, a check is carried out for the presence of a criminal offense under Art. 326 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - falsification or destruction of a vehicle identification number. In this case, the car is usually seized and sent for examination,” explained Orest Matsala, leading lawyer of the European Legal Service.
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“Twin cars”: The Supreme Court has sorted out the problem of cars with the same license plates
Car drivers can receive fines for traffic violations that they did not commit - and if you look at the attached photos, it turns out that the car numbers match the correct ones, and the cars are almost identical. We are talking about so-called “double cars,” which usually appear after a car is stolen. To simplify the “legalization” of a purchased car, car thieves use the data of an existing car of a similar make and model and make identical license plates - creating a “double car” for a real car that is in use by the rightful owner. The “understudy” will most likely have the original PTS issued by the traffic police. Sometimes the forgery is revealed not only after receiving a fine, but also as a result of an accident involving a “double”. This happened in the case of Oksana Guslyak, which reached the Supreme Court.
Evgeniy Karandashov* became the culprit of an accident: when turning left, his Toyota Harrier did not give way to an oncoming Lexus car, owned by Inga Kiseeva*. The second car was damaged. It turned out that the liability of the driver responsible for the accident was not insured, and Kiseeva went to court to recover damages and legal expenses, a total of about 2.6 million rubles, from the Toyota owner. As the traffic police found out, the car belonged to Oksana Guslyak*.
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However, she did not recognize the claim and insisted that her Toyota was not involved in the accident - Karandashov, she insisted in court, was driving another car with exactly the same number - a “double car”. In court, Guslyak indicated that her car differs from the one shown in the traffic police photographs from the scene of the accident in the color of the body, the modification of the rims, and the decorative trims on the front and rear headlights. The assumption that there was another car of the same brand with the same license plate was confirmed by a number of other circumstances - for example, the “double” was involved in another accident after Guslyak sold Toyota and the car’s license plate was changed. Guslyak also noted that her motor vehicle liability at the time of the accident was insured by Rosgosstrakh Insurance Company. Having assessed the evidence, in the first instance they came to the conclusion that Guslyak’s car was indeed not involved in the accident. At the same time, the Central District Court of Komsomolsk-on-Amur partially satisfied the claim, collecting damages, expenses for towing the car, payment for services to determine the amount of damage, state duty and postage from the driver responsible for the accident.
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The decision did not survive the appeal: the Khabarovsk Regional Court overturned it and satisfied Kiseeva’s claims against Guslyak, concluding that the car was hers and she did not prove the opposite.
However, the civil dispute panel of the Supreme Court, chaired by Judge Vyacheslav Gorshkov, which considered the case (No. 58-KG17-21), overturned the appeal ruling. The Board indicated that the appeal did not examine Guslyak’s arguments. The second instance could not independently determine whether the Toyota car that belonged to Guslyak took part in the accident and whether there was corresponding damage on it - but the court did not even try to order an examination, that is, the Board noted, it evaded its task to fully establish and examine the circumstances relevant to the case. The Supreme Court canceled the appeal ruling and sent the case for a new trial to the regional court (the case has not yet been considered).
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The RF Supreme Court made a fair decision, says lawyer Andrei Kayurin. The fact is that in fact, two subjects are involved in an accident on each side - the driver and the car. Both are identified by available documents (person and vehicle). In this case, it is necessary to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the accident, its consequences and the participants - and only an expert can do this. An ordinary photograph cannot serve as evidence in this case, Kayurin notes. At the same time, you must be prepared for the fact that you will have to do the examination at your own expense.
“If a criminal case has been initiated, you can write a corresponding petition and then the investigative authorities will conduct an examination within the framework of the criminal case. It will be free for the victim, and the court will accept its results as evidence,” Kayurin explains the question. In the Guslyak case, the question of who should compensate for the damage has not been resolved: after all, the actual causer of the harm has not yet been identified, and a decision can be made only when an expert examination answers these questions.
As for judicial practice on such issues in the courts, there is virtually none, the expert explains. In this light, the Supreme Court's decision may be particularly useful.
A few years earlier, the traffic police gave an explanation about what to do for those who are faced with the problem of “double cars.”
If you have received a decision regarding a violation that you did not commit, you must: – carefully study the attached photographs;
– if the numbers match, but the car is not yours, you must submit a statement to the traffic police department that issued the decision on the administrative violation;
– the application must state the arguments for the possible fixation of a “double car” and attach photographs showing the distinctive features of your car. You can send information to the official website of the State Traffic Inspectorate.
Experts also gave advice on how to avoid buying a “double car”: if the owner of the original car gets away with only minor difficulties when a car with the same numbers appears, then the one who bought the “double car” will lose both the car and the money. Therefore, it is better to be careful when buying a used car and check the car thoroughly.
How not to buy a “double car”:
– pay attention to the cost of the car: if the price is much lower than the market price, the car may be stolen;
– make sure that the owner is selling the car;
– do not make transactions if the owner does not have a passport or a copy of it, check the PTS data and other details of the car, there should be no changes to the PTS, it is better not to buy cars with a duplicate PTS;
– before purchasing, show the car to a specialist who will check the authenticity of the markings. If the seller does not want an inspection by an expert, you should not buy the car;
– if you have information about the marking features of the vehicle you are purchasing, check for the presence of nameplates in the places where they should be. The keys must fit all locks, and the locks themselves must be in good working order;
– in the purchase and sale agreement, indicate the full, and not the reduced, value of the car: when returning (for example, if a change in VIN is discovered, etc.), you will be able to return only the amount specified in the contract. Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs, “Shield and Sword”
*The names and surnames of the participants in the process have been changed by the editors.
- Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
Fraud protection
Protecting yourself from scammers is difficult, but possible. A motorist who discovers that his car has been “cloned” can challenge incoming fines to the traffic police. In most cases, you will have to prove your innocence in court in the presence of lawyers.
In this case, individualizing the car, having airbrushing or at least stickers on the glass or body will help a lot. Even wheels of a rare and unusual design are suitable for identifying a car. Then it will be clear to everyone that the car is different.
When all claims for fines are dropped, you need to re-register the car and get a different license plate, as well as write a statement to the police. Then it will be easier to find the attackers. This is done using traffic flow control systems. In real time, cameras identify problem cars by license plates and transmit information to the traffic police post.
State traffic inspectorate and their website
The first and most reliable way to achieve the goal is to use the official website of the traffic police. Only before working with it, a citizen will need to clarify the details of the owner of the car, as well as rewrite the license plates, PTS number and VIN of movable property.
We will assume that the citizen already has all the listed data. Then he is recommended:
- Find the “Services” section on the official traffic police page.
- Click on the line that says “Check for encumbrances” or “Check registration history.” It's better to start with the second service.
- Enter information about the vehicle in the fields provided for this purpose.
- Click on the button responsible for starting the car check.
Now all that remains is to compare the data provided by the car seller with the information displayed on the screen. If there are discrepancies, the car is a duplicate, which must be reported to law enforcement agencies as quickly as possible.
Important: checks on the website of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate of the Russian Federation are completely free.
What to do if the car you bought is a double?
Even though the car owner can check everything in advance, this may not give a 100% guarantee and prevent him from buying a twin car. Many, when the truth emerges, simply refuse to believe it. However, as in any other difficult situation, it is important not to panic and not “eat yourself” for what happened. It will be better if the owner of the illegal car tries to figure everything out.
So, if a person bought a twin car: what to do and where to go first? Most likely, the car will be temporarily confiscated, so you must make every effort to prove your innocence in court, positioning yourself as a victim of fraud. A professional lawyer with experience in this kind of cases can become a mediator in this complex issue. Even though the deceived person will have to spend a considerable amount of money on all the procedures and lose a lot of time, the proceedings will help to return the purchased vehicle.
However, even with a good outcome, the car owner will not be able to drive his car, in addition, he will not even be able to sell it using obviously fake documents. Only selling the car for spare parts will help you get back some of your honestly earned money.
