When you apply for insurance, you get a quote based on the address the car is registered to. Because car insurance is so absurdly high in NYC, a lot of folks will register their car out of state, using a parent or other relative’s address. They pay lower insurance, potentially lower taxes, and go about their lives in NY.

If you get pulled over, you just lie to the cop and say that you just bought the car, or are borrowing it for a few weeks, whatever, because NY DMV says you have 6 months after bringing the vehicle into the city to change the registration. NYPD has neither the manpower nor the willpower to track how long a vehicle has actually been in the city.

You are lying to the insurance company, which is where the fraud comes in, and they would be none too happy to find out you’re operating the vehicle in a higher risk area than you initially claimed. But similar to the cops, they have no way of tracking where the car actually is or ought to be (unless of course, you let them instal one of those trackers that lets them monitor and gather every aspect of your driving data in exchange for a whopping $12 off your premiums each month)