Criminals in Australia are using 3D printers to clone license plates, using them to commit crimes while hiding their identity. Recently, a number of car owners have been fined or charged with criminal activity without their knowledge. The case has become so serious that the authorities of the Australian state of Victoria announced the introduction of holograms on license plates to make it more difficult to counterfeit.
Australian police and several affected car owners have identified a new threat to Australian drivers. Criminals use 3D printers to make copies of real license plates and use them to commit crimes. Australian ABC News reports that victims of this form of identity theft come forward realizing that their license plates have been copied only after receiving tickets, fines and sometimes confrontations with the police.
Braden Rawlinson – a resident of the state of Victoria, intended to sell his grandmother’s car, posting its photos on sales websites. Unfortunately, he didn’t think about blurring the license plate – as a consequence, a month later, the police knocked on his door, claiming that the car was involved in hitting a man, burglary and stealing fuel from a gas station. He was charged because the same car model with his registration number was in his possession. Fortunately, Rawlinson was able to prove that he was on vacation at the time the crimes were committed, and he had video from a security camera installed in his home confirming that the car was idle at the time. Only then did the police realize that the plaque must have been copied.
Of course, posting photos of cars with visible license plates on the Internet is not the only way to allow criminals to easily copy them. Another victim of this type of crime, living in Brisbane, told ABC News that the criminals must have taken a photo of her VW Polo’s license plate as it was parked in the street. In her case, someone “generated” over A$5,000 in speeding tickets. After looking at the photos of the copied license plates, there was no clear indication that it was a fake. This means there is little Australian drivers can do to protect themselves from the practice.
The police admit that if you want to copy someone’s license plate, you don’t need much – just photograph the plates of selected car models standing in the car parks of shops or any other public place. The only solution is holograms and other related methods of marking boards. For example, as of 2020, Queensland license plates have directional markings to help detect fake license plates – they can only be seen from certain angles, making them difficult to reproduce easily.
The state of Victoria has now announced that it will be making new license plates with holograms embedded in them. Unfortunately, no other state in Australia has committed to similar safety measures.
Source: www.abc.net.au