Why blur out reg. numbers?

[thill]

I notice that a lot of people blur or mark out their registration numbers. What is the purpose of this?
Maybe I should be doing this, too.
Thanks.

 

[Still Afloat]

Because it’s best to provide the hackers with as little personal information as possible.

 

[jethro]

You may think to yourself, "but those registration numbers are seen by everyone out on the waterway or whenever it's on the trailer going down the road." The difference is, when you are in the wild you can't tie the numbers to an identity, such as you can on here. Say for instance I say something here that makes someone go nutty. They want to find me and hurt me for some stupid reason or maybe no reason at all. Then I post a picture of my vessel with my hull ID numbers. Now the psychopath has a way to find my home address and phone number. And there are a lot of psychopaths online.

 

[LDUBS]

I don't know. I understand there are all kind of what if scenarios. Even so, this is pretty far down my list of things to worry about.

Jethro, you need to stop pi$$ing people off!

 

[jethro]

I don't know. I understand there are all kind of what if scenarios. Even so, this is pretty far down my list of things to worry about.

Jethro, you need to stop pi$$ing people off!

It might not be someone that doesn't like you too much, it might be someone who likes you way too much! You never know what kind of nutbags are on the web. I might be one myself! This has happened before to people, believe me, and it has ended very badly for them. You basically don't want to post your address and phone number on what is supposed to be an anonymous internet forum and automotive license plates and HIN's are basically the same thing to a resourceful psychopath.

 

[LDUBS]

It might not be someone that doesn't like you too much, it might be someone who likes you way too much! You never know what kind of nutbags are on the web. I might be one myself! This has happened before to people, believe me, and it has ended very badly for them. You basically don't want to post your address and phone number on what is supposed to be an anonymous internet forum and automotive license plates and HIN's are basically the same thing to a resourceful psychopath.

I believe you and "mostly" agree with you. What I don't agree with is that lic plates or boat registration numbers are the same as a home address or phone number. It would be very difficult to use my boat reg number to find any personal info. So, for me this is still pretty low when it comes to something I'm going to worry about.

 

[airshot]

Might be low on priority, but that can be due to where you live. Thru my gun club, we have people come in to speak on safety and crime prevention. One simple thing people don't think about is...leaving your garage door opener in plain sight in your visor.. Once a thief has your opener he can get your home address from your license plate. In some cases, they only need to push the opener button to clone it, put it back and go your residence before you get home. People write a check and make a mistake so they throw it away. A thief can use that piece if trash to clone a new one and get money from your checking acct. While these might seem small and not important, thiefs are making millions from such small low key crimes and regular folks have no idea how they do it....

 

[LDUBS]

Might be low on priority, but that can be due to where you live. Thru my gun club, we have people come in to speak on safety and crime prevention. One simple thing people don't think about is...leaving your garage door opener in plain sight in your visor.. Once a thief has your opener he can get your home address from your license plate. In some cases, they only need to push the opener button to clone it, put it back and go your residence before you get home. People write a check and make a mistake so they throw it away. A thief can use that piece if trash to clone a new one and get money from your checking acct. While these might seem small and not important, thiefs are making millions from such small low key crimes and regular folks have no idea how they do it....

Unless your DMV has very loose rules, it would be very difficult to get an address from a license plate. A thief would be better off just using the garage door opener in the car sitting in the driveway of the house they want to access. I don't keep the opener in my truck. Instead, it is programmed into a button on the overhead console. This is actually worse because every thief will know what the buttons are for. I disable my garage door opener when I'm gone overnight.

How does having a bank account number provide access to the checking account? Think about it. The account number is on every check you write. It is already available to so many people your account would already be wiped out if it were that easy. Sure someone can issue a fake check, but it is more likely the payee rather than your account that will take the hit. Sure, it can happen, but it is not as simple as having the account number.

BTW, this is kind of neat. The small town where I live has a vacation watch program with our town PD. They will do routine drive by checks while someone is on vacation. During one out of town trip, I received a call saying the house looked secure but the passenger window on my truck was down. Besides whatever was in the truck, they expressed concern about someone accessing the garage door opener. Fortunately the door opener was disabled and the door locked down. A good friend came by to roll up the window.

 

[airshot]

Have went to the DMV on a number of ocassions with license plate numbers to confirm owner and address from accidents, never had a problem getting the info. Even our local sherriff has backed many of these ideas, he is a personal friend, according to him, check forgeries have become a hot item for crooks. Todays fancy computer controled printing machines can duplicate checks and signatures !! Currency can be duplicated perfectly, it is only the paper that creates the problem. The sherriff showed me some of the latest forgeries...unbelievable !!

 

[LDUBS]

Have went to the DMV on a number of ocassions with license plate numbers to confirm owner and address from accidents, never had a problem getting the info. Even our local sherriff has backed many of these ideas, he is a personal friend, according to him, check forgeries have become a hot item for crooks. Todays fancy computer controled printing machines can duplicate checks and signatures !! Currency can be duplicated perfectly, it is only the paper that creates the problem. The sherriff showed me some of the latest forgeries...unbelievable !!

Are or were you a law enforcement officer? If not, your DMV has poor policies in place to protect personal information. An average citizen wouldn't walk into the DMV in my state and accomplish that without pretty much a court order.

If someone writes a forged or counterfeit check against your account number and your bank honors the fake check, the bank should reimburse your account. That of course assumes the fraud is reported in a timely manner. If that happened to me I would prevent a repeat by closing the account and opening a new one.

The concern with the counterfeit checks you describe is a payee unknowingly accepting and depositing a phoney check into their account. Later they, the payee, find out their account is light and whatever thing the fake check was supposed to cover is long gone. In most scams that thing is money.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I wrote a paper check. I'm not even sure where they are! Mrs Ldubs writes a few each year for things like property taxes & DMV renewals. Reason she writes checks is the state uses a vendor that imposes extra fees for credit card payments. Going one step further, using cash is becoming pretty rare these days too.

 

[mbullen]

License plates and reg numbers are literally created for the public domain.

 

[monzster]

I often wondered the same thing. I just guessed it had something with people not wanting other people to know but if they want the number bad enough they can get it with no issues. As far a crazy people go, there are ways to deal with them.

 

[LaqueRatt]

I don't get this either. IMO when you blur it makes me wonder about you. Whether I want to buy anything from you, because you seem like a paranoid nut. Normal people don't do this or even think about it. Seems sketchy to go to great lengths to hide your identity. I'm talking only about boat numbers and license plates. Where I live the only person who can get a name and address using your lic plate no is a police officer and it's a felony to do it without having a legit reason. That is to say if you ask your buddy the cop to check it out for you, he could loose his job and serve prison time for it.

 

[LDUBS]

I guess if someone is worried they should blur it out. If not worried, then don't blur it out. No harm done either way. Similar to how some folks choose not to provide their location info. It's all good.

I'm obviously on the side of not worrying too much about this kind of stuff. Asking about my secret fishing holes is another story.

 

[thill]

Thanks, everyone. That was interesting. You can't get personal information from a licence number directly. If you have an accident, you report it to the police, and THEY get the information.

Still, I don' see anything wrong with being careful.

 

[sonny1]

Never even thought about it. Not worried about it either.

 

[David Atkins]

Unless your DMV has very loose rules, it would be very difficult to get an address from a license plate. A thief would be better off just using the garage door opener in the car sitting in the driveway of the house they want to access. I don't keep the opener in my truck. Instead, it is programmed into a button on the overhead console. This is actually worse because every thief will know what the buttons are for. I disable my garage door opener when I'm gone overnight.

How does having a bank account number provide access to the checking account? Think about it. The account number is on every check you write. It is already available to so many people your account would already be wiped out if it were that easy. Sure someone can issue a fake check, but it is more likely the payee rather than your account that will take the hit. Sure, it can happen, but it is not as simple as having the account number.

BTW, this is kind of neat. The small town where I live has a vacation watch program with our town PD. They will do routine drive by checks while someone is on vacation. During one out of town trip, I received a call saying the house looked secure but the passenger window on my truck was down. Besides whatever was in the truck, they expressed concern about someone accessing the garage door opener. Fortunately the door opener was disabled and the door locked down. A good friend came by to roll up the window.

Having any number to a bank account opens the door for thieves to attack that very account; seriously not sure you thought about your answer here, bank fraud is at a record level with all types of check fraud happens every day (I know I work in banking) we try to educate people about banking crimes but people are resistant to change and still keep writing checks to old fashion way as we did many years ago! All I can say is open your eyes, identity theft happens every day, bank accounts taken over, etc......

 

[LDUBS]

Having any number to a bank account opens the door for thieves to attack that very account; seriously not sure you thought about your answer here, bank fraud is at a record level with all types of check fraud happens every day (I know I work in banking) we try to educate people about banking crimes but people are resistant to change and still keep writing checks to old fashion way as we did many years ago! All I can say is open your eyes, identity theft happens every day, bank accounts taken over, etc......

Well, I didn't say to stand on the corner and pass out account numbers. I gave specifics in my both my posts about different kinds of check fraud and counterfeiting. Being in the business, perhaps you can share some specifics about where I was incorrect? I'm willing to learn.

 

[sonny.barile]

Only law enforcement and motor vehicle employees can run your registrations or plates and even they are subject to oversight when they do. That being said, in todays world of people taking offense over just about anything, it’s best to not give too many details about who you are online. I would worry more about “cancel culture” kooks than thievery.

 

[airshot]

Wirh everything controled by computors today, it is quiteveasy to get any information you want or need !! People's names and addresses are extremely easy to get, banking info more difficult, but names and addresses, easy. I have family in Mich, Ind, Florida, Tenn, Cali, and Penn...all can easily get names and addresses from licenses and in many cases phone numbers !! The information market is big money nowadays. I don't loose any sleep over it, I do keep my property well protected, but anyone that thinks there names and addresses are not readily availiable to those that want it, you have a big surprise comming.