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Following on from my campaign to remove number plates from used car adverts online, something considered unnecessary by so called experts, the police reported that £500,000 of fuel was stolen from forecourts in the London area last year by cars fitted with false number plates. Maybe time for a re-think! Have you had your car number plate cloned and received a call from the old bill or a fine that isn’t yours? Let us know? By Graham Hill

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In a report prepared by Auto Express they have revealed that motorists should be aware of the ways that automatic number plate recognition (APNR) is now being used. We have become obsessed with cameras watching our every move, whatever we’re doing from driving to walking down the street, buying a bar of chocolate or catching a train. But Read more »

I’m actually in a state of shock – ish! Whilst thumbing through the advice pages of Autoexpress I noticed that someone had asked the question, should you blur out the car’s registration number when advertising your car online? Now this is something I’ve had an issue with for sometime. It seems quite obvious that you should blur out the number to me Read more »

There is another web scam going about as revealed by the DVLA. The email which includes a few spelling mistakes (bit of a giveaway) asks the recipient to click on a Department for Transport web address and fill in some details. It goes on to warn that if you fail to do so it will cause you to lose your drivers licence and you will have to re-take your test. The URL (web address) isn’t obviously a DVLA address but the template used for the site looks genuine and includes links to agency pages in the Read more »

Years ago car number plates were screwed to the body work by two or even four screws making it a bugger of a job to remove a plate but these days even prestigious cars have their number plates fixed on with a couple of strips of double sided tape. It was hardly surprising then to see a warning from the Retail Motor Industry Federation about theft of number plates. Thefts have doubled over the last 3 years with the Read more »

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is launching its 2010 Scams Awareness Month by highlighting how scammers are targeting unsuspecting people using increasingly sophisticated and manipulative techniques. New research carried out on behalf of the OFT shows the scale and types of scams carried out by post, email, text, phone or Internet aimed at vulnerable people and getting them to part with cash or personal Read more »

 I am constantly banging on about the conmen out there anxious to take money from gullible customers seduced by low priced cars and low lease rates but it’s interesting to see that What Car has picked up on the problem also and warned its readers. Their first warning is to those buying a used car. You should take precautions against buying a cloned car. The first giveaway is Read more »

Cloning is still on the increase but what do you do if you suspect that your car may have had it’s number plate cloned or you are in fact suspicious about any part of the car you are about to buy, is the registration document correct (V5C) or is the MOT certificate genuine? There is a new organisation that has been set up to combat vehicle fraud called the Vehicle Safe Trading Advisory Group. You can get lots of information and help by visiting their website www.vstag.co.uk By Graham Hill

Most car cloning has been carried out to avoid parking tickets and speeding tickets but insurer Direct Line has warned of another reason for cars being cloned, to carry out a crime. The most common, according to Direct Line is forecourt petrol theft. According to the British Oil Security Syndicate, thieves are stealing a significant amount of fuel with the average offender escaping with fuel worth Read more »

The police are fighting back against vehicle cloning through the use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras located in the roadside and in most fuel stations. currently 50 million vehicle movements are recorded by ANPR cameras every day. The new software being tested by officers in Durham will identify when cars with the same number plates are moving at the same time and alert officers. The analytical ability of the software will enable the police to Read more »