License plate cloning leads to TxTag bills for San Antonio woman

7OYS: License plate cloning

A San Antonio woman discovered that her license plate had been "cloned" when she received a bill from the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority for driving on Austin-area toll roads.

AUSTIN, Texas - Imagine this: a crook is using your license plate number to drive on toll roads, or even commit a crime—but you have no idea because your plate was never physically stolen. It's called "license plate cloning" and it happened to a Central Texas woman.

"I knew immediately I was not driving the toll roads at all in Austin," said Zamarripa.

But the bill showed 51 separate charges for Austin toll roads. Then, she got another big bill from TxTag.

"The TxTag bill was $74," said Zamarripa.

Then she realized the car in the pictures wasn't her car at all—though it was the same make and model.

"It's got damage all over it. It's missing any of the identifying factors that I have on my vehicle," said Zamarripa.

The people inside the car definitely were not her.

"So I immediately knew that someone had made fake license plates," said Zamarripa.

She called the toll agencies to report it, but, Zamarripa said, "They're like, 'no, it's your license plate on a white Chevy Equinox'." So she turned to Austin Police, who told her her license plate had been cloned.

"Basically involves the duplication or cloning of a license plate, which we're suspecting is cloned and possibly used to probably avoid toll charges," said Sgt. Christian Maynes with APD's auto theft unit.

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In Zamarripa's case, she says, "They think that these people ordered blank vanity plates and then put the black stickers on them."

Sgt. Maynes says plate cloning can be the work of individuals or organized groups.

"It's basic identity theft of a vehicle," said Maynes. "There's some groups out there that are organized, that will clone a vehicle that from a license plate even up to the VIN. And then there's other people that it's isolated to where they're just using it to hide their vehicle because they're involved in some type of other criminal activity."

That's what Zamarripa says she was afraid of.

"I made a joke to my husband that I was going to end up on a Netflix documentary because I was going to be wrongfully arrested for a crime I didn't do," said Zamarripa.

While Maynes says license plate cloning isn't something Austin Police has seen a lot of, it's certainly on their radar.

"Starting to pay attention more to it now. Is this going to be a problem in Austin or is this an isolated incident?" said Maynes.

Maynes says the use of license plate readers helps track down fake plates but says there's no real way to prevent your plate from being cloned.

"That's difficult. Not really," said Maynes. "If you're on social media, a lot of people like to post pictures. Avoid posting pictures of a vehicle and its license plate."

Zamarripa ended up changing her license plates.

"I did cancel the plates. I got new plates," said Zamarripa.

And some more good news. TxDOT refunded the charges as soon as she sent them the police report. As for CTRMA?

"I logged back into my account and it said that I no longer had any outstanding charges with a collections agency," said Zamarripa.

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She urges other drivers to be vigilant, and pay close attention to your bill.

"There's no doubt in my mind this is happening to other people," said Zamarripa.

As for Zamarripa's case, Austin Police say the investigation is ongoing.

In a statement, TxDOT said:

Drivers who are a victim of a stolen license plate should contact local law enforcement as soon as possible to report the theft. If the driver receives a toll bill for charges that occurred after the license plate was stolen then they should contact the toll agency that sent the bill.

In a statement, CTRMA said:

Fake license plates impact tolling entities across the country. While we cannot control those who are intent on committing fraud, we try and resolve situations as soon as we are notified. The customer did the right thing contacting us and reporting the issue to the Austin Police Department.

In a statement, TxDMV said:

Customers who receive toll bills for a vehicle that is not theirs should contact the tolling entity to dispute the transactions. Any criminal activity, such as the theft of a license plate, should be reported to law enforcement. It appears that your viewer has already taken this step. For those who wish to replace their license plates with new plates, they can request new plates through their county tax assessor-collector’s office.

The Source: Information in this report comes from reporting by FOX 7 Austin's John Krinjak.

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