A post card landed from the Ford garage today encouraging me to come in for a service.
Nothing wrong with that, but it contained my name, address and a nicely drawn black on yellow depiction of my registration number.
I'm instinctively uncomfortable with all those details appearing in the same place, particularly when there's no need for it.
Handy for cloning, if nothing else.
Am I right to be concerned?
|
Am I right to be concerned?
Yes!
|
|
|
No!
The only person likely to read it is the postman, who already knows who you are and your address, and doesn't need a degree to work out whose car it is parked on the drive.
How's it good for cloning? No model/colour details revealed.
|
A cloner only needs to go around a typical busy supermarket car park to get all details (and the plates!).
I think my Mondeo was cloned and the police got involved. They had rung our lease company to get the car recovered/repaired! Lease company were a little too slow off the mark to catch them. Once the police were involved they had hoped they could get them to contact again and arrange a "meeting" but nothing came of that. I suspect someone in the lease company provided the details though - or how would someone in the south know which lease company number to try calling! It was all very fishy. I live in Manchester and it was a Manchester plate on it.
|
Noy so much a cloning incident but a related scenario. I had a rather odd experience about 15 years ago. I had gone to start a new job with a new employer and the position included a company car. I had ordered my car prior to starting the job but it had not been delivered on my first day. Turned out that it would be another fortnight or so before it arrived.
No big deal as there was a pool car available. It was a Peugeot 405 I think. It had previously been allocated to one the company's reps until he had left some weeks before and it had been decided to keep it as a spare.
I ran around in it for two or three weeks without really giving it much thought, new job, lots to learn and a big weekly commute while relocating. Finally "my" car was due and I decided to wash the Pug before handing it back.
Only then did I notice something. The front number plate agreed with the number on the tax disc. EG - A12 ABC. The back number plate was slightly different EG - A21 ABC.
I of course mentioned this when returning the car and a dawning came over the personnel manager's face. He explained that the guy who had had it on a permanent basis had 9 points on his licence and the theory was that he had deliberately changed the rear plate to fool cameras.
I and quite a few others had managed to drive it around like that for some time without realising. I have often wondered what would have happened had one of us been stopped.
Edited by Humph Backbridge on 19/10/2008 at 00:40
|
|
My father had a car like that back in the '70's. We put it down to a cock-up by whoever made the plates.
|
I agree with mfarrow, there are far easier ways to get a registration plate, the supermarket car park being one of them.
They don't need to know your name and address to make a decent clone, only the numberplate and the model of the vehicle.
|
Cloning was one thought I had.
I wonder if name, address and reg no can be used for any other illegal purpose?
I also wonder if the garage has breached data protection guidelines.
All the info has presumably been sent to a designer/printer and then sent through the post in the form of a post card.
Don't think I'd have had any worries if they had sent a letter.
|
Yes they may have breached DPA - try getting the Information Commissioner to act though and I'll be well impressed.
If you have a look at IC's website - do a company search and find their DP statement, it will probably include reference to using their data for mailing lists - there is (IMO) a technical breach though.
Edited by Pugugly on 19/10/2008 at 19:06
|
Found the DP statement - didn't even know there was such a thing, so thanks for that, PU.
As predicted, it contains stuff about using data for marketing purposes.
I've sent the company a short and politely worded complaint - I think that's about all the post card is worth, no need to make a meal of it.
They promise to reply within 48 hours - let's see if they do.
|
|
|
|
