Legal Eagle

What's that all about?

I drive 50 miles to and from work; people see my car twice a day and, consequently, its number plate. I am on the road for about an hour and ten mins each day, and nearly six hours a week. If I park in the car park all day, that's another seven and a half hours, and on the drive at home another fourteen. This is discounting any non-commuting use of the car (my summer holiday involved 2800 miles).

To avoid vehicle identity theft, is it recommended that we should all cover up our car number plates when we take the car out? To disguise registration numbers on this site, or similar ones, is pretty pointless by comparison. One need only go to a franchised dealer to see lots of them.

Or have I completely missed a not-so-obvious point?

StudentScooby

It used to be possible to get the address of a car by giving the dvla the number plate and paying for it, not sure if this is still the case though....

JJstiuk

LOL yea i was actually thinking this the other day when i was removing the number plate from my pics, was think... why am i doin this when plenty of criminals must see the car in town every day lol

SiDHEaD

This has been done time and time again, but its because say a criminal wants a plate for a red scooby MY00 to clone. They can drive aimlessly round looking for one, or just pop on the net and find some pics that someone hasnt blanked the plates. One is a tonload easier, and can be avoided very easily.

ralphandcarol

It is also a well known fact that in the case of action photos ie: track day pics and drag racing pics, insurance companies and Subaru themselves trawl this kind of site looking for anything they can use to invalidate future claims !!
You have been warned

esp ltd

iTrader: (1)

I blank out my plates on my ads to stop a million people running pointless HPI checks when they have no real intention of buying........also to stop dodgy people from 100's of miles away cloning my cars. I do agree that you have to uncover them for use on the road but if a car that is reasonably local then i'd have half a chance of spotting it and thus protecting my future customers. Much easier to spot a reg number on the net than drive a few hours to pick one out.
Just my personal opinion .
Dave.

AndiThompson

As said above.

Loads of people might see your car on the road, but then, a theif can break your window, you still lock the doors?

It takes 30 secs and reduces the chances.

theotherphil

I was looking at a thread the other day on here....something like "show me google earth pics of your home". Needless to say there was lots of replies. A quick search on scoobynet would reveal not only the car they are driving, but it's number plate as well as GPS co-ordinates to their home (shown in the bottom L hand corner of the google earth pics). These are the people who will then be posting threads that their car has been stolen/ home broken into etc. It takes 2 seconds to doctor a picture for use on the net and helps keep your identity safe.

brybusa

Do they really?

Can you give me a concrete example of this happening?

Does taking your car on a track day invalidate your warranty?

T5NYW

iTrader: (4)

I used to blank out mine but perhaps my username might give it away

Tony

KTM3

I dont blank mine.... It defets the object of paying out to have a private plate, if some **** wants to clone a car then they will... as long as you are 100 percent legal then it dont take much to sort out. An inconveiniance (sp) I know, but hey.... Thats the world today, one big inconveiniance!!!

ps If I post pics of other peoples cars I DO blank there plates unless I have their permission not to

JackClark

I add a cloned number plate to pictures of my car, I took it from the same model car I spotted driving around town. Best of both worlds, my car looks normal and if anyone clones the number it's not mine.

ralphandcarol

I personally have nothing concrete but it has been documented on here,SIDC,P1 and 22B sites in the past.
In the case of blown engines and gearboxes etc I have also been led to believe by an ex Subaru dealer (who is now a personal mate) they will look at all the data logging that can be retrieved from the ECU to look at how the car has been driven, obviously track driving is different to road driving and I reliably informed this WILL show up.

billythekid

I can. Subaru refused to pay for a repair to my car and even sent me a print out of the thread that they claimed invalidated my warranty from this site.

The Trooper 1815

iTrader: (31)

The Subaru dealer here in Cardiff have Scoobynet on quite a lot, "Overseer" are you watching.

Also, one SN member posted a thread ref a problem with his dealer. When he arrived the dealer gave him a hard time about slagging off the dealership when all he had done was post a "I have this problem and my dealer is being difficult.......................".

Big brother eh!

billythekid

I had a similar situation. As it happens the dealer did fix my car but got a bill from IM for the work. Told them to take me to court, which they never did.

The delaer told me that "I would not be welcome there in the future"!
Within 1 week I had sold the car and bought myself a shiny new Porsche.

All that over... wait for it.... a Piper Cross filter that was fitted to the car for less than 24 hours... 6 months before the car broke down!!!

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

When I photograph cars and post on the web, I do not edit out number plates.

I will do it if requested by the owner.



I do agree that it seems a strange activity and there is no logical reason to remove number plates for day to day driving.

I do know that PTMW! was tracked from 9 months old until its warranty expired (and beyond ) and that all my exploits were openly documented, along with number plate showing photos. During this time, I had no problems with any warranty claims that I put in including a NSF wheel bearing which could arguably be track related.

I believe that some people had their warranty declared void after they fitted potentially damaging engine modifications - boost thingy that increases boost hence leading to possibility of blown engine.

Their warranty does not preclude track days specifically and they have chosen not to comment on that issue, so make of that what you will.

GC8

Cunning. I am equally cunning; using a cloned copy of McAffee on all of my PCs.....

V4JDMSTi

iTrader: (2)

always blank my plate out. stops people that ring cars using my number plate after they copied it off the net. i don't want someone racking up points for me, i can do that myself if i want.

it does happen. friends have had letters from the dvla in the past where people have applied for the v5 for what is supposed to be the car that they bought but in fact it's had my mates number plate put on it and sold as a genuine car, when it's really a "borrowed" one, hence no v5 with the sale.

JackClark

That's not a clone it's a knock off copy, you should check the spelling on your Designer Label clothes, you'll probably find similar mistakes

kgt

iTrader: (1)

I used to work for a brokerage who will remain nameless (but sounds a bit like Swindon ?!?!?!) and we regularly got underwriters discussing claims and saying "just hang on, I'll check on our photo log".

Also, industrious scallys with cameras on their mobiles had approached a number of co.s I know with speculative pictures of said events for "reddy cash". Ah...capitalism....dont you love it.

Draw your own conclusions.

I can also tell you (in trainspottingly boring detail) that STANDARD insurance policies tell you specifically you cant race cars - ie. cant use them at track days.

At your own peril etc etc.

GC8

Jack, I had to cut corners somewhere to fund my ridiculous clothing habit.....

brybusa

Thats shocking and i am amazed...best keep covering them up eh ?

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

That is why track days are specifically NOT racing as racing and pacemaking (lap times) are not allowed. They are performance testing and driver training days.

andythejock01wrx

OK, I'm going to sound "hard of thinking" here, but, assuming the photo is on your PC and not a hardcopy, how do you blank out the reg no ?

Tidgy

sorry but what you do with it like that makes no difference the warrenty doesn't say you have to drive it like miss daisy.

only case i'd possibly agree is when people smash up the car on track adn then push it away from circuit and make a claim