Due to the numerous requests we get for training and education, we have just formed F.A.S.T. Foundation for Automotive Safety and Trends which is a 501 (c)(3) Domestic Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation, not for the private gain of any person, for public and charitable purposes.

The specific purpose of this corporation is to protect lives and property by providing education and outreach to both the private and public sector in automotive safety, theft prevention, fraud detection, emerging trends, and illegal street racing.

If you have an organization that would like to be affiliated with us, link to us, or be linked from us; or if you would like to donate time and/or money to assist us or advertise with us, please contact us via this site.

In the next few months we should have our new web site up and running along with our monthly newsletter.

Labels: F.A.S.T. Foundation for Automotive Safety and Trends

A vehicle was stolen in the United States every 25.5 seconds. With approximately 1.2 million thefts per year, for the last 5 years running, auto theft is the largest and most expensive property crime committed, costing an estimated $7.6 billion in 2005. This equates to hundreds of thousands of stolen vehicles on our streets at any given time, compounded year after year. (2006 FBI data will not be released until late 2007).

In the West, where many automotive trends start, or are heavily participated in, auto theft increased 4.5% in 2005 while the nation overall decreased 11.4%.

According to the California Highway Patrol, 247,896 vehicles were stolen in California in 2006, which is approximately one stolen vehicle for every 48 homes, almost double that of the rest of the nations average of one for every 98 homes. The vast majority of vehicle theft is committed by 18-25 year-old males. This same age group is also heavily involved in the "Fast and the Fraudulent scene".

Additionally, theft from motor vehicles and theft of motor vehicle accessories occur, and cost more, than any other property crimes such as robbery, burglary and shoplifting. Every 3.1 seconds a property crime occurs in the United States. While auto thefts dropped in 2004, theft of automobile parts and accessories shot up over 29%.

Starting with the basics should be everyone's first line of defense. Vehicles are stolen every day with the owner's key, not "hot-wired". The majority of them are stolen while parked at the owner's home.

Protecting yourself can be inexpensive and easy by starting with the basics. The first line of defense is to lock your car, windows, sunroof, cargo window...take all keys with you and park in well lit areas within public view. To help slow down the illegal towing of vehicles, point your tires toward the curb, lock the steering wheel, and engage the emergency brake. Make sure there are no visible enticing items that would lure a thief into your car. Make sure no one is watching you "hide" that purse or property in the trunk before you leave, (but it would be better if you took your valuable property with you).

Many of today's thefts occur during the winter or summer when people are warming up or cooling down their unattended cars before leaving for work. They also occur at locations where the owner leaves their car running at convenience stores or ATMs. Car burglaries occur just to access the glove box to see if there is a valet key available or if keys to your spouse's cars are in your car. If a suspect locates the keys to your other car, he may then access papers in your vehicle such as mail or registration to locate you home address. Then armed with the second set of keys he will come to your house for the other car. Surfers frequently park their cars and "hide" their key while they surf. Guess what? Car thieves stake out such spots, or know the common hiding places, and take your car as soon as you are out of site. Humans are creatures of habit and we are not as unique as we think when it comes to hiding keys.

Anti-theft devices, aftermarket immobilizers, kill switches, tracking units, and other such devices can be beneficial. Just like anything else, some systems are better than others and frequently you get what you pay for. However, no system is unbeatable so you must still follow all precautionary steps. Car owners need to do their homework before they invest in an anti-theft system or deterrent. We recommend immobilizers and tracking devices for owners of high theft cars. Many of the sport compact cars are on the nation's top ten stolen vehicle lists (see "Tips and Trends" on the sidebar menu). The more creative you are regarding the use of an immobilizer or kill switch, the safer your car is. Some enthusiasts will install their own kill switches in very creative ways. Experienced thieves know that if there is an owner installed kill switch that it will be conveniently located so they can get to it. The thief will run his fingers around the most convenient places looking for the switch and bypass it. The creative installers may make it so the seatbelt must be engaged and the cigarette lighter has to be out or they may use touch-sensitive switches and magnets. The combinations can be endless.

Even though club type devices can be easily defeated, if there are two cars side-by-side and one has a club and the other doesn't, the thief would most likely take the car without the club. If the vehicle has an alarm, the owner should consider having hood locks because many thieves are very proficient in getting under the hood and disabling it before anyone notices. Due to the high number of false alarms we hear everyday, alarms have become somewhat ineffective.

Several dealerships sell aftermarket anti-theft devices because they generate a great income for the dealership, not because they are effective. We have thieves that know many dealerships only disable the starter with a flat-plug type immobilizer system. It can be very easy for them to re-enable the starter with just a jumper wire or similar method. Many systems will disable the starter, fuel pump, or ignition. If you can find a system that will disable multiple points, your car can be harder to steal, taking more time, which is something thieves don't want.

Tracking devices like LoJack and OnStar can assist in getting your car back before it is stripped and ruined. With LoJack's Early Warning Recovery System you will be notified as soon as your vehicle moves without permission. This gives you time to notify the police in case of a theft and your vehicle may be recovered before it is stripped of its parts. OnStar can do the same thing but thieves frequently and easily disable OnStar making it an ineffective choice. We have interviewed many prolific auto thieves who are worried that a car they stole might have LoJack. Instead of driving the fresh stolen directly to their chop shop, they will park it for a twenty-four hour cooling off period. If the police don't pick it up then they assume it doesn't have LoJack and they will then strip it. There are many smaller aftermarket tracking companies that have similar products.

We also recommend parts marking, with personal identification or DataDots, of all high theft items. Applying DataDots throughout your vehicle and VIN etching of vehicle glass may also help to prevent theft or aid in the recovery of a stolen vehicle (see DataDots on the sidebar menu).

For a complete list of theft prevention suggestions go to www.watchyourcar.org or contact us from more information.

Buyer, Insurer, and Law Enforcement beware. Popular Japanese vehicles such as the Nissan Skyline and Silvia are being imported to the United States without going through registered importers and they do not comply with NHTSA, DOT, or EPA.

A vehicle that is manufactured outside of the United States and is not originally built to meet U.S. safety and emissions standards is called a Gray Market vehicle. In the United States it is a violation of federal law to import a vehicle that does not meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emission standards.

What does this mean to you? They are not legal and can be seized even if DMV/MVD has registered them.

There has been an influx of Gray Market vehicles due to the American desire for true Japanese vehicles. These are commonly referred to as JDM by the street tuners. Insurance companies and departments of motor vehicles have been wrongly insuring and registering these illegal vehicles. With the increase in JDM engines other problems have surfaced. They are not covered under any manufacturer’s warranty which has resulted in an increase in fraudulent claims. The thefts of these engines have also increased and are posing a problem for law enforcement and the victims.

For more information on regulations and laws go to the below links.http://www.epa.gov/otaq/imports/
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/import/
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/standards/chapt301.html

Because we have been swamped with research, material production and training requests we have not been able to update this site as often as we would like.

For the automotive, law enforcement, and insurance industry we have added a monthly newsletter giving industry highlights once per month. The above mentioned industries can sign up for this newsletter by going to www.vintrack.com and click on the newsletter link just under the blue car on the left side of the page. Then enter your email address in the sign up box at the bottom left on the following page.

Thank you, Mike Bender

For the purpose of this article, JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) parts and vehicles are those that were not made for the country the car is currently operating in. JDM engine swaps have been on the increase in North America. Owners of vehicles are replacing their stock engines with JDM engines.

Many issues arise in America when dealing with JDM engines. Some states, such as California, consider them in violation of smog laws unless heavily modified. Such modifications generally don't occur because the whole idea behind JDM is to get away from restrictions and gain extra horsepower. Many manufacturers will void warranties and refuse to work on vehicles that contain JDM engines.

Since JDM engines are so popular and prevalent, they have become extreme targets of theft. This has become a problem for both law enforcement and the victim. Stock engines are identified by their engine number. For example, a B18C1 (5 alpha-numeric characters) engine prefix belongs to an Acura Integra. In Japan, the same engine prefix would be B18C (2 to 4 alpha-numeric characters). When a vehicle is built, its components are married to the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number). A JDM engine is married to a Japanese VIN and an American engine (USDM) is married to an American car.

In North America, when a car is stolen, the VIN is entered into a national stolen vehicle database (NCIC). This allows law enforcement in other jurisdictions to run numbers to check to see if they are stolen. Frequently vehicles are stolen just for their engines. Unfortunately, if a tuner has switched engines and his car is stolen, chances of getting the engine back are non-existent unless the tuner/victim had recorded his JDM engine number and given it to the law enforcement agency to enter into NCIC.

Some thieves remove engine numbers in an attempt to hide its true identity. This is a crime in and of itself. When numbers are removed or changed on a vehicle component that part will be taken away from the owner and it will be destroyed. The owner can also be charged with a crime for possessing altered numbers if it can be shown that he had knowledge or involvement.

If you have swapped your engine make sure you photograph it installed in the vehicle and have recorded the engine number (a photo of the number also helps). If your vehicle is subequently stolen, you have a great chance of getting your property back.

In the October issue of Automotive News they reported some interesting stats. As of mid-October, Hurricane Katrina had generated 185,000 auto insurance claims among members of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. Those claims represent nearly $1.18 billion in damages which are likely to grow considerably.

The Progressive Group of Insurance is destroying as many as 5,000 Katrina-damaged vehicles and AAA Missouri plans to destroy 1,656 vehicles. This type of action will ensure that these vehicles won't resurface via a washed title and cause further victimization and claims.

CarFax estimates as many as 570,000 cars and trucks were damaged by Hurricane Katrina. To protect yourself from purchasing a problem vehicle check with http://www.carfax.com/ and http://www.nicb.org/

Engines are high theft items. Most of you reading this know someone who has been a victim of auto theft or theft of parts from their vehicle. There are so many stolen engines on the streets that it can be difficult at times to buy one that is not stolen.

There are steps you can take to protect yourself. Don't buy an engine for $1,000.00 when you know it is worth $3,500.00. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. You may think you are getting a great deal but eventually you will loose that engine and all of the time and money you put into it. We have seen too many people get victimized further when that stolen engine is discovered in their possession.

When buying an engine make sure you get the VIN to the car it came from. Get the entire story on the origin of that engine. Make sure all stamped numbers and stickers are visible and in perfect condition. Get identifying info from the seller. If you bought it from a website posting, save that original posting to your hard drive. If you buy it on the street, get ID from the seller and license info from whatever vehicles they are driving.


You may also know someone who has made a false or exaggerated insurance claim to build or repair their car. Don't get caught up in that! Insurance fraud is a felony and hurts many people, as well as raises every citizen's insurance premiums.

If you have questions about vehicles or their components send us an email. info@thefastandthefraudulent.com