Should we hide our number plate when posting pics online?

V-S-210

Was wondering what are the risks (if any) of posting a pic of car online (whether its to sell on autotrader or show on instagram) with it's number plate visable too?
Should number plates be blurred out?

Quentin

You risk a baddy putting your reg on an identical car.

You end up with the hassle of dealing with any police/dvla/private parking correspondence and charges

MrJones1

If you want complete peace of mind, blur out the number plate when you post a picture of the car. Nowadays, there are several apps that can do this job for you.

parking_question_chap

MrJones1 wrote: »

If you want complete peace of mind, blur out the number plate when you post a picture of the car. Nowadays, there are several apps that can do this job for you.

Or you could just open the image in paintbrush and sort it that way.

AdrianC

Well, yes, there is an infinitesimally small risk that some bad men can steal your soul if you let them see the registration... Whether that be while it's parked up, driving along, or in a photo on t'internet.

But, here in the real world, if I'm looking at a used car ad, I want to be able to see the plate so I can look at the MOT history and see if it's a clocked shed or not before I waste any time on phoning you. There's a MASSIVELY higher chance that people will move on to the next ad, assuming you have something to hide, than anything else.

Sam_Fallow

I agree with AC above, if I can't see the reg. then I'm already losing interest in the ad.

Meanwhile the real number plate is on full public display on the street and easily seen.

Robisere

Yes. Hide it. It's an invitation to the evil barstewards who clone cars and are always looking for reg plates to copy. Once they have your car details, they will look for a similar model to steal, then have plates made and be safe from ANPR for long enough to carry out more thieving. Not only will you be open to police contact, you will have unwittingly and innocently, encouraged the theft of another car.

AdrianC

Meanwhile, back in the real world, people who clone plates rarely worry about finding a close match for the vehicle.

Some years back, a whole bunch of us watched from an office window as a white Renault/Vauxhall van pulled up next to the motorbike parking, two guys leapt out the side door, grabbed a bike, lobbed it in, and the van !!!!!!ed off.

We all wrote down the same plate.

The plate we wrote down belonged to a blue Kia.

BeenThroughItAll

I usually make sure my number plate is blurred whilst driving my vehicle, lest some nefarious type might see it in the 24/7/365 it is visible IN REAL LIFE.

Some people have too much time on their hands and blur their reg in photos. Some people accept the vanishingly small risk it represents.

If someone blurs the reg in an ad for a car for sale, or covers it, I will, as above, lose interest and move on. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear.

Alice_Holt

Only if you want to obscure a dodgy MOT history.

Geoff1963

If you are selling the car, you might want to show the full number ( for some posters ) ; although a lot of adverts have a "stock photo". If you want to obscure it, don't look as though you've deliberately obscured it.

Halfords online gives the details of a car from the number plate, so if you had only part of the number plate blanked out, the rest of it could be used to find any which match in model. I'm sure there are computer programs which could harvest and rearrange the data.
With number plate and model, DVLA will tell you the colour, and the first 2 letters ( for the last 16 years ; or the last 2 letters before that ), say where it was first registered.

With the difficulty of obtaining number plates, I suspect that many are faked by stealing real ones ; so a vehicle on the road with no plate, should probably be reported to the police. The VIN in the windscreen ( if you can ) will identify it ; so the police will know to look out for a vehicle "wearing" them.