Jump to content

Blurring your license plate on Craigslist


MadManMike
 Share

Recommended Posts

So I have been doing a lot of vehicle searching on craigslist. As such I bought a subscription to carfax. Carfax now allows you to run vehicles via the license plate, which is pretty handy because a lot of pictures have the license plate and not the Vin #.

 

However, about 70% of the listings have the license plate blurred out or obscured. For the life of me I can not think of a good reason to obscure your license plate number. Especially on craigslist. The funny thing is, some people post their VIN # and blur out their license plate.

 

  1. There is no legal way to find out someones address or personal information from a license plate #.
  2. You already put your name, phone number, general location and description of your vehicle in the Ad.
  3. Your license plate is visible to the whole world when you drive
  4. If I wanted your license plate number for nefarious activities I would ask to come see the vehicle and then write it down.
  5. You are selling the vehicle

 

What do you think?

 

-Mike

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's the scary interweb, I must hide my plate! I think people worry about identity theft or something like that, hell take mine it might help my credit! :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In the UK and i guess other civilisations under mass surveillance (?) you get 'car cloning' where you get the reg of a similar vehicle and put it on your own. So your car might be uninsured with no road tax or MOT (yearly inspection) but you can pretend to have all those things.

 

If you were doing that sort of thing, you'd probably search the car ads for candidates.. And if you saw one that is blurred out, you would just move onto the next.

 

In conclusion, it takes miminal effort that could save alot of future agro.

 

As you say in point 4, you could just go view it and get the details.. :shrug:

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember years ago 88pathoffroad talked about this a time or two. iirc he said he was ok due to the laws in the state he lived, but not all states had the same privacy protections. Best thing to do would be to look up your local and county/state/province/country laws in your area.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know that in Ca, you can't get any info from a license plate unless you are LEO or agency afilliated. Some 30 years ago you could just go to the DMV and get the persons info, presumably if there was an accident or other issue, but then some nut job tracked down and murdered some woman via the DMV info desk, and that was the end of that.

I usually blur out my plates because why not, but when you are selling a car, that seems pointless...

 

B

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know that in Ca, you can't get any info from a license plate unless you are LEO or agency afilliated. Some 30 years ago you could just go to the DMV and get the persons info, presumably if there was an accident or other issue, but then some nut job tracked down and murdered some woman via the DMV info desk, and that was the end of that.

I usually blur out my plates because why not, but when you are selling a car, that seems pointless...

 

B

 

Too me it makes sense to blur your license plate online when just posting pictures of your car. Especially if you don't want to be personally connected to your online identity. Or you are worried about someone stealing your numbers or something. But yeah, when selling a car it makes no sense.

 

I remember years ago 88pathoffroad talked about this a time or two. iirc he said he was ok due to the laws in the state he lived, but not all states had the same privacy protections. Best thing to do would be to look up your local and county/state/province/country laws in your area.

 

Yeah someone else told me that too. A quick google search shows that there are Federal protections against it: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2721 But I guess its up to each state to interpret that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't see a problem with it .

When you sell a car you're not selling the plate along with it , and lots of times the plate and number are transferred to your next vehicle .

The plate # on my truck has been on three different vehicles since being acquired in May 1988 .

 

With all the technology available to scumbags these days , who knows ?

Better safe than sorry IMO.....

condom.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like car cloning here involves replacing the VIN tag with the same number as a properly titled vehicle, and then trying to register it out of state for a clean title, and the DMV figured out how to cross-check between states somewhere around '09 to shut that down. Even if they just wanted to run fake plates, our plates would be a PITA to clone without the proper stamping tools, refractive paint, stencils...

 

If somebody wanted to track me down via the Internet, they'd probably have my IP, which would get them a lot closer than my plate number would.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep, I know where you are... :whistle:

 

:tongue:

 

I don't see a problem with it .

When you sell a car you're not selling the plate along with it , and lots of times the plate and number are transferred to your next vehicle .

The plate # on my truck has been on three different vehicles since being acquired in May 1988 .

 

With all the technology available to scumbags these days , who knows ?

Better safe than sorry IMO.....

condom.gif

Untrue in this state, unless it is a personalized plate. Every vehicle I have sold in 30 years, the plate went with it.
Looks like everyone has different rules and experiences, so yeah, blur just to be safe... :shrug:

 

B

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Plates only transfer here if it's a classic/antique/collectors plate (with a written consent from the current owner) or sometimes to a family member (say a child taking possession of a car previously registered to their parents until they were no longer "high risk" owners)

 

My stuff stands out to begin with, online nunya is easy to match to in person josh. Hell my truck sais my screen name on the windshield :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep, I know where you are... :whistle:

 

:tongue:

 

Untrue in this state, unless it is a personalized plate. Every vehicle I have sold in 30 years, the plate went with it.

Looks like everyone has different rules and experiences, so yeah, blur just to be safe... :shrug:

 

B

 

Same here

 

 

Another thing to consider... when you post about mods (the harder to see ones) and such that have been done to your car, it can make it much easier to identify for a potential thief if you show it's unique easily seen identifier (the plate number)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...