Cheating Automatic Toll Booths by Obscuring License Plates

The Wall Street Journal is reporting on a variety of techniques drivers are using to obscure their license plates so that automatic readers can’t identify them and charge tolls properly.

Some drivers have power-washed paint off their plates or covered them with a range of household items such as leaf-shaped magnets, Bramwell-Stewart said. The Port Authority says officers in 2023 roughly doubled the number of summonses issued for obstructed, missing or fictitious license plates compared with the prior year.

Bramwell-Stewart said one driver from New Jersey repeatedly used what’s known in the streets as a flipper, which lets you remotely swap out a car’s real plate for a bogus one ahead of a toll area. In this instance, the bogus plate corresponded to an actual one registered to a woman who was mystified to receive the tolls. “Why do you keep billing me?” Bramwell-Stewart recalled her asking.

[…]

Cathy Sheridan, president of MTA Bridges and Tunnels in New York City, showed video of a flipper in action at a recent public meeting, after the car was stopped by police. One minute it had New York plates, the next it sported Texas tags. She also showed a clip of a second car with a device that lowered a cover over the plate like a curtain.

Boing Boing post.

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Posted on March 20, 2024 at 7:08 AM • 25 Comments

Comments

Andrew • March 20, 2024 8:03 AM

We’ve known about revolving number plates for at least 60 years. They appeared on James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 in the 1964 film Goldfinger.

Are there any earlier examples?

Clive Robinson • March 20, 2024 8:28 AM

@ Andrew, ALL,

“Are there any earlier examples?”

Almost certainly yes, but not necessarily “number plates”. Ian Fleming had an interesting “job” during WWII and a lot of things in the “Bond Books” is factually based.

But consider in most places distantly visible vehicle identification is actually less than a century old. And even now in some places the number is not to identify the vehicle, but that tax is paid, thus the number gets changed every year or even more frequently.

Alan • March 20, 2024 8:39 AM

Hope they turn off their phones as they approach the toll booths, cause if not they’re going to be pretty easy to bust…

Not really anonymous • March 20, 2024 8:54 AM

It’s time to get rid of plates. The government can’t help themselves misusing ALPR data. And commercial interests are using ALPRs to spy on pretty much everyone.
The benefit for tolling is minor. There could be a system to hide plates, but with a way to reveal them if you are stopped by law enforcement. Parking tickets could be handled using the VIN which is supposed to be visible through the windshield. (But way too hard to read remotely with current technology.)
We are compromising everyone’s privacy to save a small amount of money.
(No, I don’t drive around with a cell phone powered on.)

zzz • March 20, 2024 8:55 AM

@alan

hope they also turn off their four TPMS in each of their wheel too… they broadcast a unique ID too.

Clive Robinson • March 20, 2024 9:07 AM

@ Bruce, ALL,

The base problem from the security point of view is not the number plates or that people would counterfeit them to avoid paying.

Counterfeiting is a problem that has existed through out the ages where ever something of value can be faked at a lesser cost.

The attempted solution has almost always involved shifting from an “Off-Line authentication” system to an “On-Line authentication” system.

Specifically an “On-Line” system with a random “challenge response” system that “in theory” can not be forged.

If and only if communications can be established where ever and when ever required then an On-Line system can have “perfect secrecy” and with other techniques effectively eliminate “man in the middle” attacks. Which only leaves the issue of “relay attacks” where a genuine authentication channel gets illicitly diverted. Such relay attacks are currently being used by very high end luxury car thefts.

Can we stop relay attacks, yes but the ways to do it are very far from the very very low cost those who run such lower value payment systems want to pay for.

Thus I predict that such counterfeiting will continue indefinitely… Why? Because those that run such low value systems will not pay to remove the security holes untill the revenue loss becomes more than an inconvenience.

wiredog • March 20, 2024 10:42 AM

I know that in Virginia it’s been illegal for decades to obscure the license plates. Back in 1988 a friend had a tinted plastic cover over his and got pulled over and ticketed for “license plate obscured”.

Anon • March 20, 2024 11:00 AM

Anecdotal for sure but I live on the east coast of the US and have yet to get an “EZ Pass” transponder. I don’t drive on the major toll roads much so have yet to see a real reason for it figuring paying the toll-by-mail is simpler than having/using/paying for the transponder.

What is interesting is that I only receive the toll-by-mail about 1/3 of the time. The other two thirds of the time I assume they didn’t get a good photo of my plates. And when the toll-by-mail bill does arrive, it’s often 4-6 months after I incurred the toll so they’re clearly not in any hurry to collect.

If I did drive these toll roads a lot more, I would get a transponder but paying the tolls + fees for the occasional toll-by-mail has (so far) been quite a savings!

JonKnowsNothing • March 20, 2024 11:01 AM

@Alan, All

re: @A: Hope they turn off their phones as they approach the toll booths, cause if not they’re going to be pretty easy to bust

The economic model for these sorts of systems is to automate a process in order to accelerate income (taxes, fees). It is intended to increase the velocity of money (speed) to the controlling entity (city, company).

In order to accelerate the income stream, it is a given that all conditions that generate income will not be covered. Some aspects will either be unaccounted (unknown) for or the process will fail to capture all potential income streams. (incomplete)

This method is used universally, it always results in failures when edge and corner cases are either undefined or omitted in the design (too complex).

While in theory, it’s easy enough to bust, it’s much harder to code for. If a piece of gorilla tape or parking cone can disable an automated vehicle and its visual lidar system, there will always be options to disable any automated system. Of course, soon these systems will be labeled as having AI, and become vulnerable in a different way.

Uthor • March 20, 2024 11:13 AM

John Steinbeck had a hack for this in 1945 in Cannery Row. Expired license plate sticker? Just “forget” a dirty rag over the license plate so no one sees it!

Chelloveck • March 20, 2024 12:10 PM

@Not really anonymous: There have been proposals to eliminate plates, but I don’t think you’d like the active transponders that would replace them any better…

K.S. • March 20, 2024 12:48 PM

Video camera and image recognition software is comparatively more expensive than a receiver with antenna reading broadcast signals from passing-by digital license plates. Currently, it would be legal but not cost effective for private entities, like insurance providers, to to widely deploy a network of video cameras with license plate readers. However, it might become cost effective if digital license plates that broadcast signals are widely adopted. Likewise for municipalities installing speed cameras.

JonKnowsNothing • March 20, 2024 1:20 PM

@K.S., All

USA

Broadcast signals require FCC authorization.

Unless some Tech-Bro wants to go into the license plate business, which would hardly be possible as License Plates are made by prison labor (free) for the benefit of the State to sell to residents (initial plate fee + annual renewal fee) at a decent profit.

The accounting for the profit part is a bit fuzzy because the cost of prisoners and prison labor is not included in the materials and distribution costs.

Prisoner labor is nearly free, costing just pennies, so as not to be included in the slavery category.

RFID markers/readers have less spectrum overhead but require unique markers and sub markers to be attached to “something”. The costs would increase.

It’s hard to beat “free” labor.

JonKnowsNothing • March 20, 2024 1:41 PM

I was considering the title of this topic and wondered why it started with

  • Cheating

It’s an entire realm of unspoken bias but with a clear social meaning to it.

In PVP games there is often a discussion over “cheating” and what is and isn’t cheating. Generally other than the flame wars that occur over the topic, nothing is resolved.

Cheating implies a [fill in the blank] behavior, that Others do not engage in. The Others find it offensive that the [fill in the blank] behavior persists and such players gain an “unfair advantage”.

The “unfair advantage” is often express as

* (whinging) S’Not Fair!!! (QQ)

The flame wars are often at popcorn entertainment level.

The SNOT Fair group, have legitimate grievances for which there are few alternatives and none forthcoming after many years of code-no-fix, but also highlight that the problem is not the cheat, but how we feel when it is applied to us.

An interesting performance art exhibit in Australia highlights how people feel when something is SNOT Fair.

Kirsha Kaechele’s installation Ladies Lounge opened in Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in 2020, and sees women who enter the space being pampered by male butlers and served champagne while being surrounded by some of the museum’s finest pieces of art.

Those who do not identify as women are not permitted entry.

[a male is suing for discrimination]

[He] argued that denying men access to some of the museum’s most important works (there is a Sidney Nolan, a Pablo Picasso and a trove of antiquities from Mesopotamia, Central America and Africa in the women-only space) is discriminatory.

Kaechele said that was the point.

… he said ‘then why should I have to pay the same amount if I don’t get to experience the artwork?’

And I said, ‘you do experience the artwork, because the rejection is the artwork’

===

htt ps://www.the guardi an.com/artanddesign/2024/mar/20/artist-behind-monas-ladies-only-lounge-absolutely-delighted-man-is-suing-for-gender-discrimination

  • Kirsha Kaechele’s installation Ladies Lounge opened in Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in 2020, and sees women who enter the space being pampered by male butlers and served champagne while being surrounded by some of the museum’s finest pieces of art. Those who do not identify as women are not permitted entry.

JonKnowsNothing • March 20, 2024 3:47 PM

@Octher , All

re: stealing a license plate in Poland is a crime punishable in a special way – unusually high for such a cheap thing – up to 5 years imprisonment

Any attempt to avoid or evade payments to controlling entity or government coffers will be met with severe punishments.

The magnitude is increased far above similar evasions civilian-v-civilians.

Governments of all types, economic basis, regional differences all have the same point of view when it comes to Government Stuff and by definition, All Your Stuff is Theirs.

Winter • March 20, 2024 4:26 PM

@JonKnowsNothing

Any attempt to avoid or evade payments to controlling entity or government coffers will be met with severe punishments.

It is also fines and damages (insurance) that will land on the wrong person.

Jon (a different Jon) • March 21, 2024 4:00 PM

Of course, one way to at least defeat personal tracking is register the car in an anonymous company name. I think you will start seeing rather more of that – at the moment, it’s already here, just underground.

Bigger the company, the better plausible deniability, unless they get a really good picture of the driver (dirty windows are a huge help there).

Might cost you a bit more in insurance, if the insurance company even notices (of course, they might also choose to not pay out if you try that loophole and make a claim).

J.

JonKnowsNothing • March 21, 2024 5:40 PM

@Jon (a different Jon), All

re: register the car in an anonymous company

This is why corporations give leased cars to executives. They do not own the vehicle, they are not responsible for anything, especially if there is a for-hire driver (aka chauffeur) who is not an employee of the corporations.

It works for cars, helicopters, jets, planes, boats. They do not own them, it’s just a rent-for-hire transaction.

An additional perk is that in USA, corporations get to write-off these costs on their taxes.

Smaller companies or solo owners (contractor, RE sales) also get to write off these charge for business use of a vehicle. Rules vary about what they can deduct.

Of course, getting flown in daily by leased corporate helicopter from personal mega-mansion to mega-corporate campus offices, you do not have to worry about bridge or road tolls.

Soett5 • March 21, 2024 5:47 PM

@JonKnowsNothing

Any attempt to avoid or evade payments to controlling entity or government coffers will be met with severe punishments.
The magnitude is increased far above similar evasions civilian-v-civilians.
Governments of all types, economic basis, regional differences all have the same point of view when it comes to Government Stuff and by definition, All Your Stuff is Theirs.

I never thought about it like this.
Seriously, can you recommend a sociological literature on this topic?

Smaller companies or solo owners (contractor, RE sales) also get to write off these charge for business use of a vehicle. Rules vary about what they can deduct.

Well, but how can a small business owner defend himself from invasive tracking? Especially in countries where there are no registrations on anonymous companies?

Bob • March 22, 2024 12:46 PM

I don’t think prisoners have made license plates for quite some time. In my (US) state 3M makes the plates and also make the ALPR, which makes the problem somewhat easier for them.

The alleged purpose of the plate is not to ID a vehicle after it is stopped, but for low-tech, random, observers to be able to report a sus vehicle.

JonKnowsNothing • March 22, 2024 3:42 PM

@Bob

re: I don’t think prisoners have made license plates for quite some time.

Your state must be one of the few that do not. California certainly does. (1)

Prison labor is often obscured in the supply chain both inside the USA and Internationally. (2)

===

1)

HAIL Warning

ht tps ://en.w ikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_license_plates_of_the_United_States

  • As of 2014, the federal government and forty states use prison labor to produce their license plates.

ht tps://e n.w iki pedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_California

  • Since 1947, California license plates have been manufactured by inmates at Folsom State Prison.

2)

ht tps:/ /en.wikipe dia.org/wiki/Penal_labor_in_the_United_States

  • A wide variety of companies such as Whole Foods, McDonald’s, Target, IBM, Texas Instruments, Boeing, Nordstrom, Intel, Wal-Mart, Victoria’s Secret, Aramark, AT&T, BP, Starbucks, Microsoft, Nike, Honda, Macy’s and Sprint and many more actively participated in prison in-sourcing
  • The state fire agency, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), mobilized over 11,000 firefighters in response, of which 1,500 were prisoners of minimum security conservation camps overseen by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
    • Until recently ex-prisoner fire fighters were not allowed to be hired as permanent fire fighters.

Steve G • April 6, 2024 2:07 AM

Mud and hairspray. Reminder of this becauseI recently saw an immaculately clean 4×4 SUV but the number plate was unreadable because it was so muddy

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