May be a silly question...How comes so many people go to the effort of blanking/obscuring their registration plates when posting images??

I just do not see why, they are clearly visible to 100% of the population when you are out and about but obscure it on a forum.

May be a simple answer.

Posted from the spotted rules.

No posting of registration numbers as this can be an invasion of privacy and could cause potential problems. Also it may end up being a risk to the 'spotted' driver. This also applies to serial numbers, chassis numbers and engine numbers.

People probably aren't bothered, I'm not anyway but the person posting the reg aren't to know that.

In theory, if someone wanted to clone a car it's easier to find a photo of one online and use that plate rather than wait for one to drive by, or people may have personal reasons for not wanting to display their reg, but it's never bothered me.

It's all over the top if you ask me. I wouldn't bother blanking it out.

I prefer to blank mine but i've saved some of the hassle now by getting show plates with magnets on and bits of metal behind my reg plates.

If you don't want to blank it, that's your choice but i will continue to blank mine.

In theory, if someone wanted to clone a car it's easier to find a photo of one online and use that plate rather than wait for one to drive by, or people may have personal reasons for not wanting to display their reg, but it's never bothered me.

 

And it'd be much quicker to search for a car on autotrader or ebay than on here tbh, autotrader you can even choose the colour to search for. 

I don't know anything about car cloning so it may not happen this way but I'd have thought the best way to choose a cloned number plate would be to go to an owner's forum of the car brand I wanted to put the number plate on then find a car which matched most closely (colour/spec/age etc.) as that seems to give the longest chance of the cloned plate not being caught out.  An owner's forum gives the best chance of finding a close match, when the cloned plates are on a completely different car it's immediately obvious it's a clone but if they're similar it takes longer.

 

Perhaps I'm just overthinking it though and it doesn't happen like that at all!

 

John

Posted from the spotted rules.

No posting of registration numbers as this can be an invasion of privacy and could cause potential problems. Also it may end up being a risk to the 'spotted' driver. 

 

 

Tells wife  " Off to work " then she see's his car Parked outside number 69 with full reg on display  on a  " Was it you Thread " on Briskoda   

 

 

Honest Love I've been to work       

 

 

Yer Right

Just do a Google image search of colour, make and model and see how many reg plates get thrown up. I just Googled silver fabia vrs and mine was about the 10th picture that came up, thankfully with plate blanked out.

Personal choice but, as said, i'll keep mine covered.

Having been a victim of a cloaned plate a few years ago now, I would not want anyone to go through what I did when the cloan was caught trying to run another car off the road. Basically I had to prove and provide evidence that I was not involved and was somewhere else at the time, remember the onus is on you to prove this. If I had been unable to then I was at risk of facing a dangerous driving charge.

 

A lot of people on ebay and autotrader are now blanking plates as well, its also common practice on other forums and not just this one.

I don't know anything about car cloning so it may not happen this way but I'd have thought the best way to choose a cloned number plate would be to go to an owner's forum of the car brand I wanted to put the number plate on then find a car which matched most closely (colour/spec/age etc.) as that seems to give the longest chance of the cloned plate not being caught out.  An owner's forum gives the best chance of finding a close match, when the cloned plates are on a completely different car it's immediately obvious it's a clone but if they're similar it takes longer.

 

Perhaps I'm just overthinking it though and it doesn't happen like that at all!

 

John

 

As long as its the correct colour and shape for that year then I doubt things like heated seats and satnav will matter tbh

I blank them out because i dont want to advertize my cars as spare parts. From personal experience i know it take less than 30 seconds to steal a car and under five to strip it bare.

As for cloning. You are correct. Everyone doing it properly use the plate number from an identical/similar car. Anything else is just asking for trouble. Back when my Merc was in active use, i used the cars original german plates with the german registration papers. Two years and 50+ stops. Never got caught.

The old guy who had it before me was really creative with the paperwork. Three sets of plates and three sets of papers.

Edited 1 March, 201412 yr by DaKKs_152

As long as its the correct colour and shape for that year then I doubt things like heated seats and satnav will matter tbh

 

It can be remarkably small details that make the difference, ok not the heated seats but potentially the sat nav if it means it has the different aerial design at the back and other parts like a sunroof, roof bars, rear spoiler, badges, bumper, alloys etc. as well as dealer stickers and anything else that might be different.  If the car is a very close match, the police are likely to focus on the person whose car has been cloned but the more different it is they'll focus on the car that's running the cloned plates.

 

John

I'm hoping nobody would chance cloning mine, but I still prefer to blank out my number plate

May be a silly question...How comes so many people go to the effort of blanking/obscuring their registration plates when posting images??

I just do not see why, they are clearly visible to 100% of the population when you are out and about but obscure it on a forum.

May be a simple answer.

Internet anonymity. 

Obviously anyone photographing a street scene could well have a dozen or more registrations in a photo. I've just some research and it seems that there is no restriction on showing a plate but gaining any personal information from that plate is covered by the data protection act.

There is a previous post somewhere on the forum about whether one should or should not show your reg and I've erred in favour of caution. However I have considered posting shots of a lot of my previous cars with reg nos to see if they are still around.

I think it's more a question of etiquette and forum rules than legal obligation