I have noticed looking around that alot of the members here post photos of their cars and do not black out or obscure their state registrations. As a police officer I could give you horror stories of vehicle related identy theft type cases. Please take the time to remove your plates or black them out on your photos.

Dan

 

OMG!

 

Probably good advice.

I'm one of the "offenders" here, although I know an ordinary citizen can no longer do a reverse look-up here in CA. I also happen to like my plate (figure it out?)

I'll consider what you've said though. I suppose even with the more restrictive DMV rules I suppose it only takes one idiot at the DMV to constitute a security breach, so I'll take it down tonight. Thanks.

 

what would they do? i mean i have all the paperwork that says its mine, and goes on which vehicle etc. etc. i seriously dont understand what the consequences would be, is it just like finding out who the vehicle belongs to, where they live etc. etc.?

 

It runs the gammet form finding out where you live, leading to stolen cars, to insurance fraud and theft. Here is some examples:

I need parts for a 951 so I look here for photos of cars close to me. I write down the plate number and go to my local police station and say you hit my car and I got your plate number. By law, you are entiled to the vehicle information tied to that plate. By the time you find out about the fake hit and run, he has probably already been to your house.
A second worse type involves somewhat the same beginning, or any other way they get ahold of your VIN (not shredding you old registration card or insurance card) and then appling for a duplicate title from your DMV. They then get the new title and sell the vehicle out from under you (have seen it happen). It's a nightmare to get it fixed and like all identy theft type cases you have to prove you are right. Either way not a fun experience. I'd hate to see it happen here as all of you have so far been great to me as a question filled newbie.

 

thanks very much for the info. yikes.

 

Done dealy.

I know a couple victims of ID theft. Sucks. Nobody compensates the victims for the time, energy, resources and money THEY lose (and yes, the onus is on them).

 

With my line of work, I'm very familiar with DMV lookups (probably handle close to 100,000 lookups a day in numerous states & provinces).

Every DMV is different, but basically all they tell you is owner's name and address, and on the west coast registration date's are normally included as well. Not sure what would be more dangerous here than what can be found in your local phonebook.

 

But how's it any different than walking around, noting the tags AND VIN and doing it that way?

 

Accessibility

 

i wonder if any lurkers were at 944fest... very accessible there

 

Thank's Tiger.

And for the guys asking what could it hurt, I'll choose to err on the side of caution.

 

[QUOTE=lilredpo]Accessibility{/QUOTE]
Yep. Google for porsche images and you can get all that from the anonymity of your home computer. My p-car is garaged at home and work.

I bought it on eBay, though, so my VIN was out there for anyone with web access to look at.

Someone could steal a 944 and (not knowing how little it was worth ) sell it in another state using a fake title, but my real VIN. Check on NCIC or CarFax, and it'll come back clean - since my car wasn't stolen and I never reported it.

If the other state's DMV wasn't paying attention, they might issue a real title (using my VIN) to the other owner - and tell my state to cancel my title. I won't find out my title is canceled until it's time to renew my plates.

Some enterprising thieves here got fake titles using real VINs. They stole some high end cars (Lexus, Porsche, etc) and sold them to dealerships. Of course, VIN checks for stolen vehicles showed them as clean and the dealerships didn't check the vehicle VIN to the VIN on the title.

 

While were on the topic, here's some good advice I found over at audiforums.com that we can definitely follow as well:




Just a word of caution to all Audi owners on the forum:

There are always trolls or posers (posers = those who appear to be something they are not) on the forum that prey on unsuspecting members by what seems to be a sincere dialogue. Typically someone asks you to post your car's pic. Then they will find out where you work or live. The next thing you know, your car is stolen from under your nose.

It's an added bonus for the thief if your dialogue has included your security sytem - if you let the troll know what type of alarm/security you have (some of us have added security systems), you have made it that much easier to steal your Audi.

I hear about a lot of thefts in the Northern New Jersey area often. Although much of the theft is due to the inherent crime wave in that area, some of the thefts have been traced to forum members disclosing too much info about their cars.

So... be careful about what you say/disclose on this forum.

BTW: Any additional news on how to make your Audi more secure should be kept between you and someone you know - in person. Don't disclose (on the forum) new tricks, methods, or sytems that help make our Audis more secure.

"Better safe than sorry."

 

wow...

paranoid are we?