Call it a license to cheat.
Drivers evading the law can easily purchase devices that appear on legitimate license plates to hide or hide the identifying marks online via Instagram, TikTok or Amazon.
The kits, which cost about $60 to $70 each, allow motorists to get away with speeding, avoid tolls and, starting this week, avoid congestion zone charges in the Big Apple.
Promote videos the so-called “ghost plates” show people surreptitiously applying stickers, films and overlays to license plates for New York, California and other states.
A threat dealer is touting its ‘anti-radar stickers’ and ‘Nanofilm Ecoslick’ products – which leave the characters on license plates visible to the naked eye but making them invisible to cameras – as ‘absolutely legal’ and promising: ‘Enjoy your fast rides. without any fine.”
A phone number for the company, which The Post prefers not to identify, was answered by an AI-generated voice, which claimed that their products are “legal in most states” because they do not make the sign invisible to the naked eye.
That is strictly speaking not true.
According to traffic fine lawyer Martin Kron“If the intent is to defraud, it is illegal” for a driver to use these products.
New York State has changed its rules on ghost plates last September, making it “illegal to sell or distribute those materials and covers, or any material designed to resemble a legal license plate but not legally issued by the NY DMV.”
Fines were increased from $100 to $500 and offenders caught three times in five years will have their vehicle registration suspended.
That same month, Mayor Eric Adams launched a “Ghost Car Task Force” in the city.
Officials in New York City, however, do not appear to be in sync with the state.
On Tuesday, two days after the congestion charge went into effect, the NYC Department of Transportation announced a proposed new law against license plate misappropriation in the city.
The proposed amendment states: “Parking with a blocked license plate may result in a $50 fine” and seeks to ban “illegible, obscured or distorted license plates.”
The DOT told The Post it could not clarify why the city is apparently not in compliance with state laws.
Regardless, the NYPD actively enforces counterfeit license plates. Statistics obtained by The Post show that police will have seized 36,000 “ghost cars” in 2024 and another 294 this year.
After the introduction of the congestion charge, police issued hundreds of fines for incorrect or covered license plates, including license plates with numbers or letters scratched off or painted over, as observed on several vehicles by The Post on Sunday.
According to the NYPD, approximately 200 tickets were issued between January 6 and 8 and at least three arrests were made.
When contacted about posters selling the ghost plate kits, Instagram did not respond to a request for comment and was still showing the products on Wednesday.
TikTok removed a post for a film about license plate numbers after receiving an inquiry from The Post, and a spokesperson said the content violated the site’s community guidelines.
On Amazon, a product advertised as a “Camera Blocking Plate Cover” was removed after The Post contacted the site. However, there were others available.
Manhattan-based Kron acknowledges that buying or selling license obfuscation equipment may currently be unenforceable — “You can buy black nail polish, but you can’t use it to obscure a license plate,” he said — but that could change over time: “They’re down the pike [may] come up with a law that says it’s illegal to sell these things.”
