Last year, Texas banned temporary paper tags in an effort to thwart counterfeit license plates. Unfortunately that effort has proven less than successful, as counterfeiters have simply started making fake metal plates instead, reports Fox 7 Austin. Apparently, it’s just as easy to print a sticker instead of a piece of paper, then apply it to a piece of sheet metal, or even the back of a stolen license plate. Who knew?
The Texas Auto Dealer’s Association did. Over a year ago, while the paper tag ban was still under consideration, it even testified before the Texas House of Representatives that this would happen. From CBS Texas:
Our concern is that we’re just switching from a fraudulent temp tag to a fradulent metal tag.
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AÂ metal tag can be counterfeited very easily with wraps, etc. So I’m very concerned that we have not increased the awareness for the public, the safety for law enforcement, or that we’ve actually gone forward. In fact, we may have gone backward.
While dealers may sometimes complain about change, it seems they were right in this case. Any paper temp tag looks a little out of place and warrants a bit of extra attention, even if only to verify it’s legitimate. A traffic stop isn’t even required to do this. Now that paper tags are gone, the new fakes look like every other license plate on the road, blending into traffic even better than they used to. All of law enforcement’s talk about eliminating paper temp tags to improve public safety instead lulls the public into a false sense of security, making people more likely to trust that the metal plates on the cars they buy are real, which is not always the case.
Add a splash of color
The part no one has mentioned is just how easy it is to fake such a simple black-and-white design. You don’t even need a color printer to replicate a modern Texas license plate. It’s probably easier for a license plate scanner to read, but other states don’t seem to have any trouble, while offering pleasant, colorful designs that are much harder to duplicate.
If only Texas had stuck with its previous design, which had a short run from 2009 to 2011, until the current design replaced it. It had most of the same design elements, and the plate number was the same easy-to-read font. It also had color, and what I think was a great design for Texas. Its unique shades, gradients, and the complex mountain design at the bottom would be much more difficult to copy than today’s simple black-and-white design. Not impossible, but it’s much easier to spot a fake when its colors look just a little bit off, especially for police who examine countless license plates every day and know what they’re supposed to look like.
One way to avoid a potentially counterfeit plate is to order one of more than 500 specialty plates Texas offers. You can get anything from sports teams to cheeseburgers. There’s even a Porsche Club of America plate available. IÂ spent the past week in Texas, and it saddened me to see so many boring black-and-white plates when so many interesting, colorful choices are available. The extra $90 a year for a splash of color probably has a lot to do with it.
