Cropping or blurring your license plate in pics??

[Jed]

BTW, pics of my 4Runner plates can be found here:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/1469-4th-gen-t4r-picture-thread-59.html#post510703

 

[Slvr RnR]

Sorry, but you must be ignorant if you think it takes a crime ring to run a license plate number. Hell, it doesn't even take access to law enforcement. A good friend of mine is a Security Guard at a local community college. He (and everyone else that works in his office) can run a plate on his work PC and get the name/address of the vehicle owner. Sure, they are not supposed to run plates for personal reasons, but do you really think it doesn't happen? Really? LOL.

You must also be ignornant if you think that only 4Runner owners read this forum (same with any other automotive forum). It's already been documented that people use information posted on message forums to steal stuff from vehicles.....it's a fact. So you can sit at your computer all day and tell people they are paranoid if you want, but an ounce of prevention...well, you know. LOL. So go ahead and post up pictures all of your plates, nobody is stopping you. Just don't bash people who choose to block them out, because they are probably not paranoid, but rather a bit more intelligent than you.

Blahahahaha...well did. Although, I don't know that he deserves all of that.

Can it happen? Yes. Does it happen? Probably. Although, I haven't heard of or read of such an incident. But I'll assume it probably has.

In the end it's something that takes a minute to do and gives someone a little piece of mind and that's all that matters. It's not that big of a deal. It's like telling someone they're stupid for double knotting their shoe laces...who cares?

...oh, and I didn't realize that anyone with a 4runner who is on this forum has a gun? Should I go back to the dealership to get that or will the forum supply it via FedEx? Or should I just roll up a couple socks and stuff it in my pants?

 

[Jed]

Blahahahaha...well did. Although, I don't know that he deserves all of that.

Can it happen? Yes. Does it happen? Probably. Although, I haven't heard of or read of such an incident. But I'll assume it probably has.

In the end it's something that takes a minute to do and gives someone a little piece of mind and that's all that matters. It's not that big of a deal. It's like telling someone they're stupid for double knotting their shoe laces...who cares?

Exactly. No sense in bashing someone for being cautious. Hell, some people still live in areas where they keep the front door to their house unlocked. I actually have relatives who live waaaaaay upstate NY who do that. But since I'm close to NYC, I have to lock my stuff up if I want to keep it...LOL.

 

[SecretAgent]

[/I]Multiply that by at least 6.5 million ....that's the population of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex. What is there like, 20-25 malls around here.



If thieves have access to inside information to the Dept. of Transportion or Police Depts. to run your plates ,do you really think they would have a theft ring stealing 4Runners or there mod parts?Really?????

I would venture to say a very high percentage of 4Runner owners on forums are the outdoors type ......the type that own guns . Thieves, if they plan on living long, generally choose easy targets ,not ones with guns! We should do a poll of how many on T4R.org members are gun owners and enthusiast....Somebody??

I have been on Porsche and BMW forums for 11 years now and this subject has come up 1000 times and argued both ways.Some of them,not me, have alot better arguement for blocking out there plates because of the value of their rides and their parts.Still, I have never seen one thread of evidence of internet crime rings running license plate numbers.There are just alot easier ways.

The symptoms I gave in an earlier post are for paranoid personality disorder also known as PPD. A real psychiatric condition and alot of people have it to varying degrees.If your scared to put your 4runner license plate on the internet. Chances are you either have PPD or your are ignorant to the fact that NOBODY cares what your 4Runner license plate number is, unless you are a wanted felon.
PPD or Ignorant.....PPD is treatable,so I was just being nice.

a local houston based import car forum has a very very bad problem with theft of member's vehicles. there have been several incidents of people posting up their cars and mods, and a week or two later, the car goes missing. most of these owners didn't blur their plates.

while i agree with you, the odds seem slim (houston being the exception to the rule) that any harm would ever come from showing your license plate on a public forum; but honestly, it doesn't take long to do, and if it even deters 1 person from attempting to steal your vehicle/identity then it was worth it.

 

[AKAndy]

If your scared to put your 4runner license plate on the internet. Chances are you either have PPD or your are ignorant to the fact that NOBODY cares what your 4Runner license plate number is, unless you are a wanted felon.
PPD or Ignorant.....

This is a glib and just plain silly statement. We are discussing both sides of this question, but there's no need for ad hominem attacks, sticking a personality disorder label on those who disagree with you. Gimme a break.

For me it just comes down to "why put any personally identifiable information on the internet unless it's necessary?" I think reasonable people can disagree on if it's worth doing or not in this case.

I acknowledge that the risk is small, even though anecdotal evidence has been shown that giving your plate number out can result in your vehicle being broken into or stolen. However, the amount of effort needed to block out a plate number is also small. In my opinion, the small amount of effort required is worth the small amount of risk that is mitigated. Feel free to disagree, but give the personality disorder thing a rest.

 

[manhunter]

I think we all have some sort of personality disorder evidenced by the lack of constructive time spent and the continual debate and disagreement over whether one should black out their license plate or not. If you feel better doing it , then do it, ....., if it does not matter to you, then don't do it.

 

[BamBam]

The reason I've always done it when selling cars is so that others don't use my pictures or car info for a scam sale attempt.

If you put your car up on Craigslist and include your VIN and/or license plate number then I guarantee your car will end up all over every other Craigslist and other free classifieds in America.

If you only allow VIN to go out by request and hide the driver's license number, then there is less chance of people using your car for an attempted fraud. Of course they won't really sell YOUR car, but they use your pictures and pretend like they have your car for sale. They can find out the VIN by the plate number. They can find personal info as well.

That's my reasoning. Once I saw my old car being used on a Craigslist ad back east and somebody claiming they had it for sale then I knew it was not a good idea to put out any info on my car as they could use it to attempt to scam somebody else. Typically the prices on those ads are like 20% of what they should be and they attempt to lure suckers into placing a paypal or western union deposit to "hold it". Just my experience.

 

[JohnsD90]

C'mon, plate numbers aren't that important, I would rather you guys on the internet see them, than a Red light camera (i am so glad i dont have any of those up here), cause a lot of people want to steal my $1800 4runner, Come steal the front bumper off so i can order an ARB !