Is it possible that someone could acquire and possibly abuse my
personal information from having my license plate number? I have a
crazy brother in law that has been stalking me and my family for 3
years now. It's mainly been phone calls (hang ups and obscene messages
on our machines). We believe he is out of the country. But tonight, I
saw someone standing outside of their car in front of my house. They
drove off and a minute or two later, the phone rang. It was another
hang-up. I'm afraid he may have gotten my license plate numbers and
now knows my home address. I'm concerned he may want to take this to
the next level and start destroying my credit. Can he obtain other
personal information (like my social security number) just from my
having my license plates?

Hello webfingers-ga,

Let me first give you the (perhaps obvious) advice that you should
contact the police immediately if you believe that your brother-in-law
or someone else is stalking you, especially if that person is nearby. 
You should mention your fears about identity theft to the police as
well.

The answer is that someone can potentially use a license plate number
to obtain other personal information.  I am reluctant to post too much
information about how this can be done, since it might give ideas to
potential identity thieves.  However, I suppose that an example that
is easy to find, and published by a reputable organization, is
appropriate.

An identity thief can "simply write down a license plate number, find
the driver's name and then tell the motor vehicle registry that you
have a new address, says Ed Sparkman, spokesperson for the National
Insurance Crime Bureau.  The registry sends the registration to the
new address.  It often includes the driver's license number, which in
many cases is also the victim's Social Security number."

"Feature article | identity theft - Nothing Personal", by Henry
Stimpson
Coalition Against Insurance Fraud
http://insurancefraud.org/feature_id_theft.htm

Thus, if you live in a state where the driver's license number is the
Social Security Number, it is probably a good idea to ask them to
assign you a new number.

It seems that, in cases where the driver's license number is different
from the Social Security Number, it is more difficult to obtain
someone's personal information, but is still possible, since a
driver's license number can be used as identification in some
circumstances.

"Identity Theft: What to Do if It Happens to You" (A Joint Publication
of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and CALPIRG) ["11. Driver’s
license number misuse"]
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs17a.htm

I hope that this information is helpful.

- justaskscott-ga


Search terms used on Google:

"identity theft" "license plate"
"identity theft" "driver's license number"

[I tried other searches as well, but these resulted in the pages I
have cited.]

Excellent response to what I thought would be a tougher question. I
appreciate the quick work as well!

http://www.equifax.com

equifax, experian, etc... sell a service for $50/year or so that will
report, via email, any change in your credit report.

This is very worthwhile, in my opinion, just on general principle.