Reported vehicle thefts in Arizona fell 21% through the third quarter compared with the same period a year ago, according to data from the Arizona Automobile Theft Authority reported by Insurance Journal on October 21.

Source: Insurance Journal

The decline follows a year in which Arizona recorded its fewest reported vehicle thefts since the authority's inception in 1992, the authority said.

But the authority warned that the headline drop may mask losses: as technology makes newer vehicles harder to steal, organised criminals are allegedly using fake or stolen identities to finance or lease vehicles, then creating fake paperwork to conceal liens before selling the vehicles to buyers. The schemes often involve out-of-state titles and can occur before lenders discover the fraud, according to the authority.

Because some law-enforcement agencies treat these organised scams as civil matters, the vehicles are not reported as stolen in the National Crime Information Center database, the authority said.

In a recent example cited by the authority, a local car dealer alerted the Arizona Department of Public Safety's Vehicle Theft Task Force to someone trying to sell vehicles with potentially fraudulent titles. Investigators identified six vehicles valued at more than $750,000; all six had titles altered to conceal liens and were linked to fraudulent purchases tied to a foreign criminal organisation, according to the authority.

The authority said criminal organisations in Arizona and nationwide are increasingly targeting higher-value vehicles through fraud rather than stealing larger numbers of lower-value vehicles, and the vehicles are often resold to unsuspecting buyers or taken out of the country.