Why do people, when selling cars, insist on covering up their number plates with a bit of card, or colouring them out in Paint Shop Pro (or whatever)?
What exactly is it supposed to achieve or prevent?
Cheers Paul, Wakefield
Paul ( snipped-for-privacy@katpawmynuts.f.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
It's supposed to stop people identifying that there really is a Blue Mondeo reg AB04EFG and so cloning the reg onto another Blue Mondeo.
Because, as we all know, it's physically impossible to actually read the registration off a real live Blue Mondeo - it can only be done over the internet.
It's much easier off t'Interweb. I just spent about 45 seconds on EBay and got 4 numbers that would be the same make model colour and year as mine...
I agree, much much easier on the internet. I know if I sat in my town on my high-horse, it would take a good few hours to see a car the same colour as mine. It's not an unusual colour either. The internet makes a number of things easier. Explaining the function of covering-up a reg plate in the ad itself coudl alleviate it somewhat.
David R (david snipped-for-privacy@ntlworld.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
Of course, it's all utterly academic - since cloners don't tend to worry about such niceties...
A couple of years back a few of us watched a motorbike being nicked out of an office window - lifted straight into the back of a white Renault/Vauxhall van. We rang plod, with the plate - THREE of us had written it down separately and identically. The plate belonged to a blue Kia hatch.
Nor are they able to get new plates made up without the log book and 40 items of identity! Ooops! Forgot. That only applies to honest citizens.
( snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
Am I dishonest, then? Last plates I had made, I rang a local factor, gave the number, then waited a couple of hours until they were delivered to my friend's workshop - with his name/postcode/phone number on the bottom.
Possibly, I don't know you. Your local factor is, unless he is sited outside England or Wales.
( snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
I had the relevant paperwork available.
He's in Bucks. Part of a very large chain.
So now you know!
You also get the problem when finding one locally that the driver of the 'real' car may well notice an identical car to his with the same plate, whereas the ex-owner of a car sold in Huddersfield is unlikely ever to spot my Gloucestershire clone...
Check out the number plate of the Range Rover in the background.
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