Why do we blank license plates in photos here?

totally correct.

the vin° of most F-cars can be seen above the steering wheel.

And when you go to the Ferrari days, every catalog has the vin n° and name of the owner in it too.

 

Because this is unavoidable.

Yes, Quite probably. But then 2000 miles is nothing nowadays. Criminal activity is not limited or restricted by distance.

 

It's not paranoia.

With just your plate and a connection to the internet (as well as a few other things that anyone can get), I can have your name, address, phone # and a few other things. A few more minutes and I can have your SSN and virtually unlimited credit from that.

The difference between the internet and just tooling around is the Size of The Audience. On any given day, on any given week during any given month, there may be 10000 people that see my plate, of those maybe 10 can run the info, and of those 10, maybe no one will care enough to bother with doing anything with such.

How many unique IP address hits does FCHAT have a day? How many of those are regular members, and how many of those are closet scammers looking for a hook?

As with anything, it's not the exposure but the dosage that gets you. Limit the exposure and you limit the dosage by default.

When you have things that other people want (money, lots of it), it does make sense to take steps to protect what you have.

If you are Chaa, and some 200 pound weakling decides to run his plates and raid his house and the rude awakening comes not only with a thump but the sounds of bones breaking, then you have nothing to worry about.

If you are not Chaa, and do not have such in your employ, then a little bit of forward thinking is needed.

The easiest of which is to control the exposure so the dosage doesn't give you a headache.

 

on the other hand...

it's cheaper (here) to change your name by deed poll to your current license plate than it is to get a vanity plate to match your name...

 

No problem,
here is mine, here you go:

Licence plate: HD - TR 1991
VIN: ZFFAA17B000091239

...waiting for your phone call

 

Exactly. Precisely why I don't title cars in my name. It gives me peace of mind that the only thing someone can look up is a company address. Sure, if they wanna dig they could turn up a home address eventually. But why hand it to them?

 

Vincent,

No offense taken. I notice that the Ferrari Chat police are out in full form.

My name's Matt Ferrari, and I live in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. The car is s/n 9453. And I really haven't had plates on for the past couple of months!

--Matt

 

Sorry to drag up the dead.. but I just saw this.

Show a Jaguar, BMW, Mercedes or Volvo online... with an American plate on it, and I would be happy to ship a key to your car to you.

I hate to say it, but you never do know who's watching, reading, etc. I'm a car dealer and we frequently order keys for cars. Not too long ago we needed a key for a Jaguar (I sell a lot of used Jags).

I had Casey, my friend, call up a Jag dealer we buy parts from with the car's vin and order the key. No questions asked. And she just started working with us, so it's not like they know her.

1 hour and $25 later I had a spare key to said 1997 XJ6. What if I was a clever crook with a cop friend who could run tags? Oh wait. I can run tags too I believe.

Oh, they want a copy of the reg? No problem, think I can't scan and photoshop one of those and fax it over from Mail Boxes, etc in about 30 mins assuming I know how to use P-Shop?

Hate to sound like a looney.. as long as I've been in the car business, the slick scams that criminals think up are amazing.

 

How DO you blank - out plates in a photograph ?

 

Some of hte experiences i have had with taking pictures and placing them on hte internet is this. Yes a lot of pictures have the plated blocked out, but I have taken some photos where I did not intentionally block out the plate and from hte angle you are taking the picture and hte use of a flash, sometimes the license plate will reflect the flash and create the same effect as blocking out the plate. So I would venture to say not all of the blocked plates you see on hte internet are bloked out intentionally.

Wade
www.fortunemotors.com
www.308qvregister.com

 

Well...

think about it. How many Ferraris do you see on the street? Unless you live in a nice part of California, perhaps South Florida.. well, you don't see them every day.

It's a thought... probably a crazy one, but nothing surprises me anymore.

 

Who in their right mind registers their cars to a home address ? Why did God invent PO Boxes for ? Car registrations , Drivers License all go to a PO Boxes (holding companies things like that ).

 

WFO: you said it!

I recomend Mail Boxes ETC (now UPS Store) box. It can appear as a regular suite/apartment number (it dosen't 'look' like a box, people with polict of not sending to a Box won't be any the wiser.) They also auto-forward to your office/home, and will handle larger packages.

 

It would be interesting for people to do a Google on their plate. "Spasso" doesn't seem to turn up anything, but I do get a few hits on "4RE GT4". However, my references seem to be related to FChat postings, not my plate specifically.