Just a further point to consider about theives and blocking out plates. Many vehicles these days are VERY difficult to pinch so the dudes usually break in to your house and pinch the keys. The other market is "extra's".
In WA there is a choice of plates that are geocoded IE the plate has a a 1, 2 or 3 letter prefix that ID's the area or town of Issue. Even the normal Plate runs are issued in batchs of 1,000 to a Registery in almost all States so it is very easy to ID that plate ABD nnn comes from, say Parramatta or Rockhampton.
In the last few years a couple of Gov employee's have been dismissed for illegally accessing Rego Records for criminal activities, most recently supplying names and addy's to a car gang.
There was also an instance here when 3 vehicles were broken into at the owners homes and 1 vehicle was in a shed in the back yard at the time. All 3 were members of a special interest forum within a few suburbs of each other and similiar gear was stolen or attempted. Our local cops had no other reports of 4X break ins that night.
Personally I do not list my Extras, Display my Plate or put up many Pic's of my vehicle just to be on the safe side.
P.S. anyone can obtain your name and addy from the Rego Mob for a small search fee altho I doubt many crims would bother most as has been prev stated probably just troll around.
Dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish.
Well also going against the grain, I think i have to agree ^
I used to block out number plates on my pics, but in reality, i take and post "way" to many pics to be attempting to edit plates out of "all" pics (not even mentioning video), no one has ever complained, and if they do/did, i will gladly remove any and all pics of their vehicle, however, i will also NOT take/post pic of their car in/at any future forum events etc.
I have attempted to get a contact detail from a rego number (for legit reason), and to get someones address just from a number plate is not that easy (well in QLD anyway), i know people say it is, but try it yourself, sure if you are some form of underworld character, then all you need to know is the right crooked person guess.
If you drive your car anywhere ,somone can always follow you home, if they "really want it", these days they will hiyjack you while youre still in the car anyway, when you are parked the VIN is also visible to anyone (on a QLD rego sticker)
If you have a unroadworthy/illegal vehicle, then you are way more likley to just get pulled up and busted driving around, and your insurance, if your crash is 100% legit, pics may even help with your insurance ,evidence you are telling the truth about what happend, i posted my crash pics before settlement, but i had nothing to hide, and took the pics with the prospect of showing them to my insurance company first hand.
And yes, what about the 500,000 people selling cars, they list pictures, all mods, Rego number, VIN, location, ph number, etc etc, and you can ring em, and they just give you their address, much easier id say.
I also wonder how many people cover number plates, yet post pictures of themselves and personal details on Fail-book and such sites, i think theses days you are more likley to become victim of identity theft, hacked ebay account, credit card/bank detail theft etc etc, and think of all the personal details most people put in the wheelie bin, then go stick it out on the street !
Im not saying everyone should always post their plate, and some times there may be good reason to edit it out, even if its just because you can do it easy, but if your not doing anything remotely wrong/ilegal, and normally dont, i think there is no greater threat of theft (via number plate ID), than any other type of pre existing crime we already face on a day to day basis.
Here here ... I'm a culprit of not blocking mine all the time too, but considering I drive a near on 3 tonne truck with TANK plastered on the windshield and have my suburb in my avatar banner, it would be an easy job for people who know what they're doing (crooks) to find it ...
At the end of this process, all my mods will be engineered with a compliance plate on the truck. So trying to do the right thing at least for the main ones who worry me - the police. Thieves will get what they want no matter what, and as said, it's more likely that it's just your neighbourhoods "time" for drive bys etc as they aren't that dumb and move around to avoid detection. Most of our trucks are somewhat conspicuous and not the fastest of machines, not to mention, not as valuable to the underworld market of stolen vehicles as more exotic machinery, so whilst I never want it to happen, my chances of completely avoiding theft are next to none no matter what precautions I take ...
I do agree however on the insurance side of it - mine covers me for private parks (not comps though) but all mods must be added to your insurance, even at risk of a premium increase - better to have to pay an extra few dollars and still be covered for thousands and thousands of dollars in the event of accident and/or theft.
Oversize (22nd February 2012)
Psssst Dont you people drive ya car on the road past thousands of other cars daily/weekly do you not check out every patrol you pass as ya drive around the country if ya wanted somebodys rego im sure ya would take it down as ya drive around our god blessed country ya think blocking it out on line somehow gives some anomity i think not......Having had My pride and joy HDT group 3 stolen from my locked garage they got through 2 locked doors and one house alarm and 2 car alarms i dont think blanking out plates is gunna help if they want it there gunna find ya
Only a dog understands why bikers ride bikes
Its also so w@nkers dont report ya as happened on an aussie jeep forum where someone pi55ed off reported the others jeep and got him defected. Hopefully we dont have
co3Kheads here like that. Also the coppers do spend time looking at forums and may take the opportunity to slap ya with a defect if they read all the mods you have made.
IF YA DONT GET STUCK YA AINT TRYIN HARD ENOUGH........OR YA TOOK THE CHICKEN TRACK
WARNING: TOWBALLS USED WITH SNATCHSTRAPS DO KILL!!
Psssst, yes, they could drive past a thousand Patrols wondering which ones have Airlockers, HID's, Chips, etc etc ... or... they could come on to enthusiasts sites and find a whole bunch in half an hour.
No biggee to me whether people block out plates or not... just saying I have first hand knowledge of two instances where exactly that has happened. Surf the net, get the plate, get the addy's, get the gear. Gaol time for one instance, insufficient proof in another.
It's called risk assessment people... totally your choice and agree the odds are low but it most assuredly does happen only the prevalence is debatable.
As for the Coppers surfing the web looking for defects, well, I dunno about that one. In the case of the Jeep Forum maybe thats how it went down, maybe not but even that is different to Coppers proactively looking for specific vehicles to defect.
Dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish.
The irony is the people who post every detail of their life on facebook or twitter are the first to complain about privacy.
Good points and good post ET!!
That all said ... it's too late for me now short of going back through a thousand different posts .... BUT, at least for the police side of it, hopefully as of about now (he was there earlier today), I have mod compliance plates for petrol system, lift/suspension and the turbo installation .... One small peace of mind through it all anyway ....