ex-webby

Guys

We're turning to the community here for your extensive knowledge.


Lets say I post a picture of my car on ScoobyNet, and the registration number is visible. What problem does this cause?

Many of us tend to erase the registration number, but what is the actual reason for that?

Over to you!

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

I never bother obscuring my registration number because it can be seen every day by hundreds of people on the roads.

banny sti

iTrader: (68)

Someone may get a copy of your plate and do any dodgy activtities that are caught on camera. It will show your plate and the old bill will come knocking on your door.

Banny

GazTheHat

As banny said, to stop people copying it.

Might be rare, but it still happens, so i try to make sure it doesn't happen to me.

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

But they can also do that if they spot your car on the street and that's even easier because they can actually steal the plates because it's not as easy to get plates made up these days without your documents.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

It's not that hard, though - and you could be a long time sitting by the side of the road looking for a car just like yours to drive past. Much quicker to go to the owners' club for the model in question and look through their gallery pages.

Daft Lad

Thats true, but even if it is a harder way of doing it, why give them the extra opportunity by showing your plates online?

PeteBrant

Certainly no harm in obscuring the number.

Aside from the obvious registration theft, I am sure some of the more enterprising criminals will have a way of tracing your car by its registration to find out your home address, and hence where they will be a much loved scooby on the driveway.......

Shark Man

Say if you have a stolen silver scooby and need fake plates of a another silver scooby of roughly the same year....where easier place to find a valid number to copy than the internet?

Scouring streets is somewhat more labour intensive than a few clicks in google or the member's gallery.

New plates are very easy to copy and make. Dispite the clampdown. Because the clampdown doesn't do squat....just makes it harder for Joe public.

You can get whatever plate you want for "show purposes" mail ordered off the net next day delivery. No v5 or license needed....look here: show plates - Google Search
You can even walk into some graphic design/decal/sticker shops and they'll make up some standard looking "show plates" for you, no questions asked...done it myself on some non-standard bike plates (legal sized lettering...just its a US spec bike with an odd sized plate holder, so needed a slightly smaller backing plate )

Failing that, break in a plate shop and nick their plate printer.


Second problem is there are some right sad geeks on the internet. Just say you annoyed one of them. By using your plate details they can cause you problems - such as reporting the car as being involved in accidents or incidents. And if the saddo is in the same area, they could target the car, for whatever whim they feel the need to bestow on the targeted user. So its part of protecting one's anonymity.

GazTheHat

Exactly!

ex-webby

Interesting.

Thanks a lot guys. I think we'll leave policy as it is now then. If people don't mind their reg being visible, that's up to them, but we won't enforce it.

It sounds like it isn't the end of the world, but could just cause you some irritating problems if someone decided to.

Thanks guys.

Shark Man

Yeah it's purely optional as it can only affect the user/owner of the car that's posted in the picture.

Another scienario is if someone commits a driving offence in a car and posts a video in the public domain, if that same user also posts pics of the car showing it regs number, then there are cases where the driver has been found by the police via the reg. I for one know there is a vid of me being silly floating about on the net, but thankfully it is not linked to my user name or identity (it was posted by someone else) and no pics of my car(s) contain the reg number. But if there was a reg number displayed and the video was reported, well, who knows...


However, the only issue I can see from an admin standpoint is if a user posts picture of someone's car without the owner's consent.

I would think that policy would cover that; If a user objects to their car being posted, then they should be able to RTM the post or PM the user for it to be removed.

Snazy

No harm in obscuring but would be more worried about posting pics outside my house, with enough visual info to locate the car. If I was that worried about it going walkies.

As has been said, plenty of opportunity to copy or steal plates every day on the streets.

T5NYW

iTrader: (4)

I used to blank mine but someone pointed out but my Username might give it away

I blank out all at our local meets for the above reason but when at big shows anly do the forground

Tony

Flaps

iTrader: (1)

Two people I know of have had their cars cloned. One was used for a robbery too! He had the police pulling him all over the place for a few weeks I see very few black blobeye wrx's around where I live but there are loads on here and now we have the avi's they aren't hard to find. I just do it to make it harder to clone.

gpssti4

iTrader: (6)

I don't want people on here to know my plate so I can drive like a t*t and no one on here will know it's me

[Davey]

People who hide their places because they are worried about their car being "Ringed" are paranoid freaks lol! If someone wanted to ring a car they wouldnt bother with one thats been splashed all over the net or a modified car, they would go and find an indescreet car parked in a street....

The only good reason I can see to hide your plates is either a) You drive like a tit, b) you dont want your insurance company to know about modifications or c) You've lied about the model

[Davey]

I suppose I should add I personally hide mine because I dont want my insurance company know about anything I might or might not do to the car! And even then there is such a miniscule chance of that happening.

pippyrips

Agree with Pete - members galleries and the like are full of modded/trick cars that are usually better/more desirable for one reason or another. Yes - someone could follow me home after spotting the car to steal it but then again i am always conscious of that too and have purposely driven past my home when i have been suspicious (twice)

Some call it paranoia, others calls it sensible

Also agree with Webby on the each to their own judgement.

Simon 69

I think that people should be free to either show or obscure their own registered number: but SN should prohibit members from posting photographs of other members (or non-members) cars, where the regsitered number can be identified.

Simon

vindaloo

How exactly is it difficult to get plates?

I bought some off fancyplates.com just by filling in the order....

That would have been in 2005 but still ISTR after the "rules" changed.

J.