covering license plates

Drillbit

Drillbit

Well-known member
Oct 12, 2005
5,943
1
Glasgow Ky
This might be a dumb question but why do people always cover their license plates when they take pictures of their cars for ads? Can the general public run plates and find out anything? People will post their vin and address where the car is and still take pictures with their thumb blocking the plate number.
 
Blue

Blue

Well-known member
Mar 26, 2004
10,056
869
AZ
I always laugh at that too - it's a license plate, not your social security number (which people willingly give out all the time anyway).
 
Tugela

Tugela

Well-known member
May 21, 2007
4,763
564
Seattle
I cover up the plate in photos to make it harder for the owners of the stolen vehicles to track them down.
 
WeBeCinYa

WeBeCinYa

Well-known member
Feb 25, 2016
131
5
NC
First red flag in a for sale ad. Obvious seller is trying to prevent ability to run carfax now that these can be run from plate numbers.
 
brian4d

brian4d

Well-known member
Dec 3, 2007
6,499
67
High Point, NC
jafir said:
Yep. You can also us the free "my carfax" app to turn a plate number into a vin if you want. I just add it to "my garage" and then it shows the vin, then I can put it in microcat and see if it has a rear locker.
Click to expand...

Not sure if I like that idea. Good way to find out if the seller is hiding something. Ask for the VIN and he refuses. Pretty simple.
 
az_max

az_max

1
Apr 22, 2005
7,463
2
Having been the victim of false reporting of my plate of a crime (while I was driving no less), I would rather not give all the scammers in the world an easy way to:
a) track me down
b) falsely report me for something I didn't do (off-road on a trail now closed? driving through protected lands?)
c) find some loophole where they get a duplicate title issued to them in another state and claim I stole their car.

And I would extend those same protections to someone else's vehicle I'm posting pics of. A little blur goes a long way.
 
B

bigred

Well-known member
Apr 20, 2004
3,457
1
East Coast
www.hillbillytrailcrew.com
az_max said:
Having been the victim of false reporting of my plate of a crime (while I was driving no less), I would rather not give all the scammers in the world an easy way to:
a) track me down
b) falsely report me for something I didn't do (off-road on a trail now closed? driving through protected lands?)
c) find some loophole where they get a duplicate title issued to them in another state and claim I stole their car.

And I would extend those same protections to someone else's vehicle I'm posting pics of. A little blur goes a long way.
Click to expand...

I don't understand how that's any different than the fact that your plates are exposed 24 hours a day in the real world? Can't someone who wants to commit license plate fraud just look at your real world truck?
 
az_max

az_max

1
Apr 22, 2005
7,463
2
bigred said:
I don't understand how that's any different than the fact that your plates are exposed 24 hours a day in the real world? Can't someone who wants to commit license plate fraud just look at your real world truck?
Click to expand...

Yes, but that's the 150 people within 100ft of me everyday. Not 500million people worldwide with Internet access.
 
qbenplaya00

qbenplaya00

Well-known member
Oct 4, 2012
122
0
Melancholy Hill NJ
NAILED IT!

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