Covering Up your License Plate

AlCab

AlCab

New member
So I see that most people cover up their license plate when posting pics of their bikes. So why is that? How is seeing your license plate online any different than someone seeing your plate number out on the road or in a parking lot?
 
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Deleted member 438

Guest
I guess it's cause on the web you put it out there for the whole world to see. I guess it wouldn't be too hard for someone to do do some back tracking to possibly steal your identity by having a plate no.
 
D

Deleted member 438

Guest
We should do a study here at the forum. We could start a thread where all the members post a pic of their bike with plates showing and then see who gets screwed.
 
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bren

Guest
i dont mind my plate number being online... i dont have much to steal lol
 
M

mrthompson

New member
There has been quite a few cases where thrives have taken the plate number and have been able to track down the location of the vehicle and steal it. Or even stole parts off it. Its one thing if your stuff gets stolen locally but a different situation if someone 3 states away steal it. The other thought to is companies still pics to advertise products. So your plate might get exposed more ways than you can imagine.
 
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Hoover

Guest
Identity theft folks.
My wife and I both had our ID stolen. We were in the hole for over 100 grand.
Fortunately, after hours and hours and hours of work, we got it cleaned up. Took over 2 years though. We got lucky and a Michigan police officer took our case and it ended up with a trial and prosecution.
One piece of evidence was a photo of out Jeep in Florida that was on line and we were tracked through our plate.
 
Black Widow

Black Widow

Avid Rider
Your right Hoover, the guy behind you on the street isn't sitting in front of a computer, hacking your identity. People surf for plates from far away to steal your identity. The guy down the road isn't likely to use your identity. Sorry to hear about your situation Hoover, i hear of this so much now with the whole world linked together now with the Net.
 
AlCab

AlCab

New member
So I looked into this a little bit. Seems that this question has come up on many other forums as well. One guy who drives a tow truck said that he could track down a person's address from a license plate. I don't know about being able to steal your identity though. If that is the case, then an identity thief could go to any parking lot and jot down several license plate numbers and steal that identities that way. Again, no different than seeing a license plate on the internet.

My bike lives in my garage so I am not too worried about someone tracking my address down through my plate and stealing my bike. If I owned a rare and/or expensive vehicle like a Ferrari, then I would be more concerned.

I guess everyone has their own comfort level when it comes to stuff like this, so we each need to do what makes us comfortable.
 
H

Hoover

Guest
AlCab said:
So I looked into this a little bit. Seems that this question has come up on many other forums as well. One guy who drives a tow truck said that he could track down a person's address from a license plate. I don't know about being able to steal your identity though. If that is the case, then an identity thief could go to any parking lot and jot down several license plate numbers and steal that identities that way. Again, no different than seeing a license plate on the internet.

My bike lives in my garage so I am not too worried about someone tracking my address down through my plate and stealing my bike. If I owned a rare and/or expensive vehicle like a Ferrari, then I would be more concerned.

I guess everyone has their own comfort level when it comes to stuff like this, so we each need to do what makes us comfortable.
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I was in the towing industry for 30 years and that is indeed true. In most states, tow companies have access to DMV records so that they can contact owners of vehicles that they have done "non consentual" tows on.
An identity thief could, if he wanted, do just as you said, but thats not normally how they operate. The majority are internet lurkers. They spend a great deal of time on forums of all kinds, gaining as much info about someone behind the scenes as they can.
If you are a regular user af forums, it is not that difficult to built up personal knowledge of someone, locate their address and know their patterns well enough to hack into their lives. I'm not going to give any details, but that is exactl what happenend to us.
A photo of my Jeep wrangler, that had been poached off a Jeep forum was found on our thief's hard drive and was used as a piece of evidence in his trial.
Most PD's will not bother with ID theft, but we got very lucky. It ended up in Michigan and thanks to a tenatious detective, who just wouldn't quit, we got a result.
Trust me, you do not want to through it. Dont take the chance.
 
master paper clip

master paper clip

New member
Hoover said:
I was in the towing industry for 30 years and that is indeed true. In most states, tow companies have access to DMV records so that they can contact owners of vehicles that they have done "non consentual" tows on.
An identity thief could, if he wanted, do just as you said, but thats not normally how they operate. The majority are internet lurkers. They spend a great deal of time on forums of all kinds, gaining as much info about someone behind the scenes as they can.
If you are a regular user af forums, it is not that difficult to built up personal knowledge of someone, locate their address and know their patterns well enough to hack into their lives. I'm not going to give any details, but that is exactl what happenend to us.
A photo of my Jeep wrangler, that had been poached off a Jeep forum was found on our thief's hard drive and was used as a piece of evidence in his trial.
Most PD's will not bother with ID theft, but we got very lucky. It ended up in Michigan and thanks to a tenatious detective, who just wouldn't quit, we got a result.
Trust me, you do not want to through it. Dont take the chance.
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Damn that sucks sorry that happened to u, luckily he got busted and your stuff got cleaned up.
 
AlCab

AlCab

New member
Hoover said:
I was in the towing industry for 30 years and that is indeed true. In most states, tow companies have access to DMV records so that they can contact owners of vehicles that they have done "non consentual" tows on.
An identity thief could, if he wanted, do just as you said, but thats not normally how they operate. The majority are internet lurkers. They spend a great deal of time on forums of all kinds, gaining as much info about someone behind the scenes as they can.
If you are a regular user af forums, it is not that difficult to built up personal knowledge of someone, locate their address and know their patterns well enough to hack into their lives. I'm not going to give any details, but that is exactl what happenend to us.
A photo of my Jeep wrangler, that had been poached off a Jeep forum was found on our thief's hard drive and was used as a piece of evidence in his trial.
Most PD's will not bother with ID theft, but we got very lucky. It ended up in Michigan and thanks to a tenatious detective, who just wouldn't quit, we got a result.
Trust me, you do not want to through it. Dont take the chance.
Click to expand...

Hoover, thanks for sharing your experience. I will be more cautious about posting my plates on line going forward. Fighting an identity theft is one huge headache I don't need. Glad thinks worked out for you and kuddos to the detective for taking on your case.
 
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