Too many fingers on craigslist

[bull]

People are weird. I'm looking for a kid car and a lot of sellers seem to think sticking their fingers out to cover the license plate keeps them safe somehow. Really? Are you so fearful that someone is going to go through all the hassle of running the plates so they can steal a $500 car? Especially when there's a craigslist map to your exact location or a street sign in the background? And your identity is probably pretty safe too since your name is not listed. Besides, how many people selling a junk Volvo have a credit score of 800?

[Mike DC]

                
When email first started it was harmless to put your email all over the net.  It's not harmless anymore.  And you can't just stop posting the info after the danger becomes clear.  

I still get spam from one single careless usage of my email almost 15 years ago.  I have never once responded to any of the spams sent.  I still get it today.  



There is no telling how a scrap of personal info on the net might come back to bite you.  Better safe than sorry.    

[Aero426]

Because millenials.   They are a group of odd ducks. 

[bull]

I can see not posting an email address but a license number is a lot different. If a license number were a security issue we wouldn't be driving all over the country with them plainly displayed for all to see.

[Mike DC]

  
Maybe the govt enacts a driving tax once people are driving more electrics & using less gasoline.  Maybe it's enforced via cameras on the license plates everywhere.  Maybe people start counterfeiting plates to avoid it.  But they need to use legit numbers or the computer system flags it & they get pulled over.  Etc.

I'm not saying that exact scenario is likely, I'm saying we can't predict what will happen.  

A few years back there was no specific crooked use for a person's ZIP code.  Seems pretty basic, right?  Your name is in the phone book and your ZIP could be easily gathered from that.  But now it is getting more important to know the correct billing ZIP when using a credit card.  If a person gleaned my ZIP code from an online post many years ago it would make it easier for them to use my stolen credit card today.



Q.  Why do you bother locking your car or house?  Any 1/3rd competent thief could get past the locks in a couple minutes by himself.  So what's the point of locking your stuff?  

A.  Because minor efforts are worthwhile just to avoid being the easiest mark.   

 

[bull]

Not buying it. I doubt those with a license plate shown prominently in the photos are more likely to have their identity stolen that some dork with his finger in the picture.

[Kern Dog]

Because millenials are a group of odd dicks. 

I agree. I have seen the greatest generation AND the lamest in my lifetime.

[Mike DC]

Not buying it. I doubt those with a license plate shown prominently in the photos are more likely to have their identity stolen that some dork with his finger in the picture.

You might be right.  For today.  


But why does it bug you so much that people take a slight little precaution like this?  

In general I don't think that any choice in favor of privacy should need defending.  It sorta makes me think of "why would you object to being searched if you have nothing to hide?"    



As for Millennials - Older generations always bash younger generations.  You can set your watch by it. 

[Homerr]

I agree with you bull. 

And if one is truly paranoid about license plate number + name = SSN = identity theft then maybe they'd be better off selling to a car lot than on CL.

There is something that freaks some people out between being able to show their license plate when driving (mandatory, obviously), maybe it is anonymity of the 'herd' of folks driving - and posting a pic of their plate online.  A buyer, and frequently potential buyer, will potentially know you by the way your made contact - CL email, personal email, phone number and on a test drive they could see any paperwork - receipts for auto work, registration, title.

So, to me, it says the seller is unsure about either 1) the ability or extent hackers/identity thieves will go to, or maybe more likely, 2) just not comfortable not being able to judge a contact/potential buyer in person before they give any basic information out.  If I'm a buyer that information tells me something about the seller.

[Mytur Binsdirti]

At least there's no boogers on them.

[bull]

There are some precautions that I might recommend besides covering your plate with a blurry finger. And while I think plate covering on a cheap car is paranoid overkill it's less of a distraction if they blot it using the Paint program instead of sticking their hand in the photo. As for other precautions, meet in the parking lot if the bank or DMV so the seller can make sure the money is real and both parties can transfer the title on the spot. The buyer may never even see the address then. It's not a big deal, just a comical pet peeve. If naked plates were an ID theft (or any kind of theft) issue you'd think you'd hear more, or at least something, about it. If the car were more valuable like one of our Chargers it would make a lot more sense to me, but I still wouldn't want to see hands and fingers in the photos.

[Mike DC]

        
As for fingers being more annoying than blurring the plate image - blurring the plate image is several extra steps.  Plenty of people take ad pics without even moving all the crap off the hood & trunklid & roof in the garage.  People are lazy.  


As for the contacting & selling process revealing more personal info than the plate - that's only true of the scammer contacts the seller at all.  Tons of people have gotten their car pics or identity stolen by parties they never see or hear from.  And then there's the future risk.  
 


Perhaps the finger "spoiling the image" is an asset in the minds of some people just on principle.  Your pics won't get used by anyone else, period.  It won't turn up later on a refrigerator magnet or a cuckoo clock or anything else.  That has happened to people right here on this forum.  

 

[johnnycharger]

People have taken pictures of my car before.  They could be anywhere on the net and I wouldn't know it.

[RallyeMike]

I live the Volvo pic where the photo shows the street signs indicating the cross street where the car is parked. 

[bull]

I live the Volvo pic where the photo shows the street signs indicating the cross street where the car is parked.  

Yeah, that's a good one.

       
Perhaps the finger "spoiling the image" is an asset in the minds of some people just on principle.  Your pics won't get used by anyone else, period.  It won't turn up later on a refrigerator magnet or a cuckoo clock or anything else.  That has happened to people right here on this forum.  

I suppose but still, we're in the $1,000 range here. If you're producing hearing aid brown Volvo wagon fridge magnets and crappy paint-peeled Jetta fly swatters you're going to go broke.

[stripedelete]

Because millenials are a group of odd dicks. 

I agree. I have seen the greatest generation AND the lamest in my lifetime.

I'm with you two. 
Stranger Danger!  Stranger Danger!

Some one could photograph plates in a parking lot too.  What's the difference?

[Mike DC]

I'm with you two.  
Stranger Danger!  Stranger Danger!

Millennials didn't dream that attitude up, they were raised with it.  By their older parents.

[Laowho]

Maybe this

http://203.200.22.249:8080/jspui/bitstream/2014/9419/1/Civilization-and-its-discontent.pdf

or

http://www.elimeyerhoff.com/books/Foucault/history_of_madness_foucault.pdf

or this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s

might help us to understand a little better. Itsa start. Maybe egocentrism is the birthright of material prosperity, or maybe it's just propogandist conditioning. Our niece likes to dissect and reconstruct (the skeleton of) the occasional animal she finds dead. Her latest effort which she posted on her FB page got her called into the principal's office and generally chastised/threatened/warned in the most nebulous terms, all b/c one of the (anonymous!)  teachers at her school saw the post and "reported" her. Nice. What's irksome about the fingers, and about the teacher, is the assigning of the meanest (basest) motives to others.  

[Mike DC]

 
Every generation thinks they are the first one to discover the evils of materialism taken too far, to reflect on the loss of simpler ways of life a few generations earlier, etc.  

People were talking like this centuries ago.

[JR]

Because millenials are a group of odd dicks.  

I agree. I have seen the greatest generation AND the lamest in my lifetime.

I'm with you two.  
Stranger Danger!  Stranger Danger!

Some one could photograph plates in a parking lot too.  What's the difference?

Yeah, stupid millennials! We should ask the generation that raised them what the hell THEY were thinking, right?

Tell me how you guys had your lives together and didn't do any stupid crap when you were 18-25 also.

That'll show those millennials.

[stripedelete]

I'm with you two.  
Stranger Danger!  Stranger Danger!

Millennials didn't dream that attitude up, they were raised with it.  By their older parents.

I agree 100%!!!!!!!!  And having no children I am free to blame the rest of you,

[bull]

 

[bull]

I call BS on this finger business being a millennial thing. Millennials would spend ten minutes using some tech on their laptop to block off the plates instead of their fingers; so my millennial daughter tells me.

Me? I would use a 6x12 piece of cardboard and a loop of duct tape.

[Kern Dog]

I blame millenials and the jerkoffs that raised them with equal disdain.
Everyone gets a trophy?
Everyone gets to be heard?
Everyone needs a safe place?
Transgender bisexual pedophiles are people too
Tell me how the pervasive entitlement mentality is of any benefit to society when people are conditioned to think that they are OWEd something!
Tell me how the generation that grew up with disposable lighters, cars, technology and diapers have the right to tell me that we create too much waste!

[JR]

I blame millenials and the jerkoffs that raised them with equal disdain.
Everyone gets a trophy?
Everyone gets to be heard?
Everyone needs a safe place?
Transgender bisexual pedophiles are people too
Tell me how the pervasive entitlement mentality is of any benefit to society when people are conditioned to think that they are OWEd something!
Tell me how the generation that grew up with disposable lighters, cars, technology and diapers have the right to tell me that we create too much waste!

Tell me about millennials being the ones "perversively entitled" when it was the boomers and Gen X that ruined the economy today by loosening banking regulations (and exploiting every loophole in them), prioritising short term gains over long term sustainability,(both financially and environmentally), running up the cost of education, corrupting Wall Street, and ruining the cost of healthcare, and all for their own short term, immediate gain.

All that just to leave the next generation with the bill and the clean up.

Im not saying EVERY Boomer/Gen X'er did that, but hey, let's continue to make gross sweeping generalizations about millions of people, right?