The Mercosur Plate was implemented in Brazil in early 2020 to adapt the country to the standard used in most of South America and, in addition, expand the number of possible combinations between letters and numbers from 175 million to 450 million.
What nobody expected was that the new format, in addition to not curbing, would end up causing a significant increase in a problem that already gave headaches to owners of vehicles with gray license plates: cloning.
According to figures released by the Detran-SP to Jornal do Carro, the number of “stunt” vehicles – the name given by the agency to identify those that run irregularly with cloned license plates – rose a lot in 2020 and 2021.
The report pointed out that 138 cases of cloned cars were recorded in Brazil in 2020 and another 301 between January and December of the following year. In 2022, however, the number of stunt plates has dropped to 189.
types of cloning
According to the Detran, there are two possible ways of cloning vehicles, whether they are equipped with standard Mercosur plates or old ones. The first is when the stunt vehicle is 100% the same as the original — color, model, etc.
The second type involves cloning just the board itself. In both cases, the intention is the same: to circumvent traffic control. The penalty for this type of crime, provided for in Art. 311 of the Brazilian Penal Code, is the same as well — fine and, in some cases, imprisonment, which can vary between 3 and 6 years.
How to proceed if you have a cloned card?
If you are thinking about how to protect yourself from having your license plate cloned or, then, identify if your car has a stuntman running around, the news is bad: according to the Detran, unless you cross with him or receive a fine that you’re sure you didn’t commit, it’s impossible to know if you’ve ever been a victim of this crime.
The agency’s guidance, if you have been fined and do not recognize the infraction with 100% certainty, is to immediately seek the Detran of your municipality to denounce the possible cloning of license plates. Before, however, it is necessary to make an Occurrence Bulletin notifying what happened.
When you report correctly, the Detran will start the necessary procedure to change the vehicle’s identification plates and carry out a new inspection, in addition to accepting the appeals to cancel the infractions that you did not commit.
The opening of the process can be done online, on the agency’s websitebut it is necessary to attend a unit in person (Poupatempo, in the case of São Paulo) to present the necessary documentation.
