I see a lot of people hide their number plate when posting pics of their cars on social media or even when selling their cars online. They hide it with scribbles, emojis or even try to hide it with their own finger in the shot out of desperation.
What safety concern is there for people to need to do this?
Can people pay rego without the billing number?
In Victoria - yes
Not sure if still the case but a few years back, you could also look up (and, if you're generous, pay) someone's toll notices with just a licence plate number and state of registration. I know this as my mother had me assist with looking up my sister's toll notices and paying them, with no involvement of said sibling.
…then dont sell car as registered when its not registered….
Car registration is identifying. You could see their car in their driveway and from that learn that user's (Gumtree, Facebook, whatever) home address.
Not having the rego there makes that more difficult (but still not impossible)
Hm. Seems like a stretch to see a photo from someone you don't know then happen to identify the number plate in one of the millions of driveways in the state.
But I guess if people have a reason to be worried about enemies of some sort.
It is a stretch, but it's a lot easier to see a 6 character registration and identify "that's that car" than it is to see the same make/model in a similar environment and go "that's that car".
Whether it's a real concern is a different question.
Same as those that use a moniker online - why not use your name? Provides some (if even limited) anonymity.
who puts their home address on gumtree, facebook and whatever?
Hopefully noone, my point was that if they show their rego in the photo and you see that rego in someone's driveway, you've potentially now learnt their home address.
someone's driveway, you've potentially now learnt their home address.
How are they gonna differentiate that from say a friends house or just some random's house you decided to park up at and take pictures of your car to sell? Or what if you took your photos at a shopping center or a store? Yeah that guy lives in that store, lets get him when its dark.
It's an easy way for someone to create a false plate and rack up fines/commit offences if they have a similar make/model and colour of car.
But then again it's on display every day of the week so not really hiding much.
Carsales does its best to auto fuzz out number plates to avoid this very scenario
Pretty sure they do it so you can't find the vin to do a ppsr search, and use their ripoff "car history report" instead.
$2 vs $30
Some car salesmen do that it online so that they can use the same photos for different cars (obviously same model and colour). I've seen several examples of this and I assume it's so they don't have to perfectly clean the car each time they post a common car.
What… Like this…? I think their algorithm needs some fine tuning!
Check out this 2007 Chrysler 300c Auto MY07.
https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/2007-Chrysler-300c-…
Shut up and take my +1
This, it's happened to a friend. Someone will look up a car close to theirs (make, model, year, colour), create a fake plate with a copied plate no., then commit crimes/accrue fines in the car.
And it's happy hour at the kinki gerlinki too
Don't you mean, fappy hour at the Kinki Gerlinki.
Don't know about other States, but in Queensland it is an offence to offer a car for sale without a safety certificate. i.e. you must have a safety cert before the car is advertised. The cert is only valid for 2 months for a private seller and costs $75, which can be expensive if it doesn't sell quickly, so many people only get a safety certificate when they have a buyer, therefore they are not advertising to the world that car doesn't have a cert yet.
?
It always seems strange to me. If you spotted someone online selling a car that you wanted to stalk, wouldn't you just arrange to inspect the vehicle, turn up to get the number plate and then go from there?
This involves going outside and interacting with people. Why do that when you have the option to stalk/spy from the comfort of your gaming chair?
2nd, by inspecting the vehicle, you are exposing yourself (heh) as a potential suspect.
Stalking/spying 101: You do not want the other party to know you are stalking/spying.
Unless having them know is part of your kink. Then hey, go for it!
I have a custom plate that I paid extra for, and in the event the plate is stolen (e.g. someone saw my plate online and created a duplicate to rack up fines), I would have to cancel my plate, forfeiting the fee I paid and get a new plate. Not saying I post my car online for people to see or someone couldn't see the plate while I am driving, but still would like to lower the risk of that from happening.
One of my side projects is to build a crowd sourced number plate sighting date/time and GPS location database. This is where we will pay people (eg Uber or Taxi or couriers) to mount our camera and GPS and collect number plates pictures. We have some machine learning which converts the number plate into searchable text (keeping a picture as well). Eventually the database will be worth money so we can charge for access.
Kinda like the reverse phone directory.
not really…
Wow. That sounds as creepy and Orwellian as Clearview AI.
Who would buy this data and for what purpose?
Police and local councils are two I can think of off the top of my head.
Its definitely a worthwhile tool to have for security reasons.
If it has a lot of useful data. The logistics of it all is mind boggling tbh. But if the concept can somehow be patented and the possibility of it happening with upcoming technology increases, its definitely a good business idea given the direction the world is heading.
Sounds like a big invasion of privacy. Have you checked the legalities of paying people to collect such info and then also for collecting it, let alone selling it.
Sounds scarry but nothing illegal about it. Which is where these dragnet type data scrapers start to tread on the edge of legal and ethical uncomfortableness.
Wow. I am working on EXACTLY the same thing. I got a slightly different model to get people to use it, but funny how an idea you think is so original actually isn’t!
Best of luck buddy!
I have owned and sold 20+ cars in the past 15 years, all were sold online with photos and number plates visible.
Can confirm that I'm still alive and well.
👍😊😂
Same reason I wear clothes when I take those photographs. Just in case
It has to do with plate cloning. It is rampant in other countries such as the UK. What they do is copy the number plate of the same type and colour of a vehicle that is registered and use it on a vehicle that they have, either theirs or stolen. That way they can go undetected from rego check cameras. And if they do run a red light or speed, they do not get the fine. Or they use them for other types of crime. Once they use that plate number for a crime, they just clone another. Just a note though, most people that hide their plate number think they are doing it for a reason that isn't actually correct. They are more or less just following others.
This seems to be the most likely scenario. I guess I always figured your car is on the road and if someone wanted a particular car, they just had to wait for a few minutes on a busy road to see one.
But it makes sense that looking a particular make, model and colour on carsales and then using those plates to clone would be much easier.
Exactly what he said.
People can now just 3D print a number plate so it’s even easier for thieves now.
They have their own ways to make them look a bit shiny/metallic
Yeah, thieves aren't that sophisticated in Australia, they'll just steal an existing set or an actual car if planning to use it for criminal activity.
well one way to mitigate this is to build a completely unique car from scratch that no one in the world could have possibly copied you or have made unless you video recorded your build progress and shared it on something like youtube…. OR mod a car to the point that its no longer distinguishable from stock or any other aftermarket parts - so basically custom mod job on your own car…..
Because certain unscrupulous people use this detail to track the owner.
If you are on vacation snapping photos of you and your vehicle at the Grand Canyon, they then track where you live, knowing you are not home, and rob you.
As simple as that
How do they get your home address from your number plate?? This is news to me.
Yes, OzBargainers be warned. It would take a long time to drive home from the Grand Canyon if your house alarm went off. Moreover, the thieves would probably be gone.
How will they know where you live from just a number plate?
How? Really?
Carsales.com actually blur the photos for you, without request. I recently sold my car and was perfectly happy to have the plates displayed, they were visible in the photos I uploaded. Once I proceeded to post the photos I was notified that when the ad gets reviewed before being listed that the number plates are blurred automatically to protect your identity, etc.
Yes, I’ve recently sold a car too and had the same thing. What I find interesting with this, is that you still see car photos on there with the plate only partially covered by their auto-blurring and also, the overview section of the ad has a field where you include the actual rego. Plus you know the state with high certainty (rare cases would happen where an interstate vehicle is sold). So you could just copy it using that info and the generic state plate layout
The rego is important to the buyer to do their own checks hence why there is a field for rego, but by having the plate blurred out the idea is that you can't see the exact variant of plate (slogan) etc. so its harder to make a correct fake
I thought that was because of the special covering you could get to stop your plate showing up on speed cameras….
The other prescient issue is the airbag recall that affects several marques. Simply entering the plate and state at
www.ismyairbagsafe.com.au
and following their generated link to the relevant manufacturer website, you can confirm whether or not the recall was actioned.
Absolutely. It still amazes me that after two years there are idiots that have not yet actioned their free airbag replacements.
It is already illegal for a car yard or auction house to sell a vehicle with the airbag not replaced. Carsales.com.au are now blocking sales of cars without the airbag fixed. And the state authorities are now blocking reregistration of vehicles with an outstanding airbag recall. It is also now mentioned in the PPSR record.
Don't know if it is actually true but there seems to be some "cloning" of physical plates going around.
So if they identify a vehicle of the right brand/make of the right model of the right colour then cloning such number plates by the crooks will allow them to drive "safely and freely" as rego checking will indicate it is all right.
Facebook and other many social media are infinite sources of information to be able to do that number plates cloning..
edit: Oops, just noticed this was mentioned a few post ago by Rayman011. Oops
Don't know if it is actually true but there seems to be some "cloning" of physical plates going around.
So is it true? Is there any evidence of this occurring frequently or is it just anecdotal or simply rare?
Happened to me.
I made a rookie mistake of not redacting my plates when I was selling my car on carsales.com.au, and my rego plates were identified.
A month later (I haven't sold my vehicle yet), I was hit with numerous toll charges for travelling on roads that I rarely travel (North Sydney) in ungodly hours (e.g. 1am on Wednesday). I requested a review and they sent me photos of a car that had my exact rego plates, same colour and ALMOST same make. Differences were, mine was a Honda Accord Euro base model, and the car in the photos was a luxury (difference being there are foglights in the luxury model). Also, the car in the photos had some orange stickers in the rear window, which mine did not.
So I contested by sending photos of my own car to the toll authorities, managed to be reimbursed the amount that was charged (around $100+), and I filed a report with the cops. Soon after I traded in my car at a dealer's, told them about the situation, and the dealer said he's also heard stories of syndicates existing for plate identity theft, similar to fraudulent passports and drivers licence.
It could be coincidental that you listed then got stray toll charges. Someone might have seen you in the local area.
The dealers opinion is only anecdotal and not evidence of it being frequent.
@Euphemistic: I think you missed the part about the photos showing an almost identical car to mine, except for rear window orange stickers and foglights, which my car does not have.
Also, I rarely travel those roads, and definitely not on the times and dates shown on the toll charges.
Last year I was asked to keep an eye open for cars that frequented a place close to me,I would then go to the RTA site and check the number plates and I found one an Hyundai with the stolen plates which were reported stolen from a 1998 Holden Barina,I also found a Mitsubishi Lancer with the plates that came from a Feroza you can also check if the vehicle is registered,how much registeration is left on the vehicle and if unregistered the date it expired, all free information……
Who asked you to do this??
Ive spotted 2 stolen cars in my neighbourhood using the VicRoads rego check system. Reported to the police but they were gone before they came here.
did you take photos which including house numbers and any other details of anything that would identify the vehicle being there when it was noticed
No I just called the police, they said they'd send a patrol car around. They didn't ask for anything else.
Fwiw carsales' does this, but their business model is to charge dealers "by the lead" - so they do all they can to prevent leakage (all contacts need to happen though their communication channels - so they can justify charging dealers for each one).
This is also why they hide the contact details of the dealerships on car listings - you have to call trough their redirect service, or msg though the website.
With the rego number, all a buyer needs to do is a quick google search to bring up the dealerships website.
As for everyone else? Maybe they're concerned about privacy/safety/fraud, or maybe they see it done on carsales and just assume it's the thing to do?
It's personally identifying information.
Some people don't want to be personally identified to every random weirdo in existence on the internet.
How so? A registration check in Victoria only brings up vehicle-specific information.
It would be pretty naïve to think that a sufficiently motivated person couldn't use that information.
Here's an interesting story for you.
It would be more naive to think that many people would go through the effort explained in that video, just to track down some random individual on the internet.
by searching on the internet you cannot get any persoal information you can only check if the vehicle is stolen,registered or not registered and if the number plates have been reported stolen,
think before you speak it saves a bit of embarrasment
What's your number plate? lol
I'm curious too, he's gone silent with your response which somewhat implies you might be right about it…..but would be interesting to see if you could pinpoint exactly where he lives and everything else about him so he can validate them for you….and to us since we would know if you post it publicly on this forum…
Also, having plates on photos up on social media for example can allow unknown malicious actors to file false reports against you should they want to with little chance of tracking them down and could be for any reason like maybe you posted a comment on social media they don't agree with.
Why can’t I take my own photo of a car on the road or in a car park and do all the devious things mentioned - I don’t get it - the only thing I get is that CarWankerSales are exactly that - (profanity)!
Things I learned. Recently listed a car on carsales. Uploaded a few pics I’d taken for gumtree etc where I’d blocked out the plates. Wouldn’t list the car, had to uploads photos with plates visible and then they blanked them for me on the listing.
I’m guessing it’s a man anti fraud system so that you can’t use downloaded photos of another vehicle.
It is a shame to sell one's car. Just like you won't sell your lovingly pet! So they don't want people to know they are doing it… :)
So others don't accidentally pay their rego.