Northern Virginia driver fights citations tied to fake license plate
Fake license plate leaves man battling traffic tickets
A Northern Virginia man says a cloned version of his vanity license plate generated years of traffic tickets for vehicles he doesn’t own.
VIENNA, Va. - A Northern Virginia man says he has spent years fighting traffic tickets tied to a car he doesn’t own, after someone allegedly created fake copies of his vanity license plate and used them on other vehicles.
What we know:
Jay Rosenberg, who recently moved to Vienna from Montgomery County, Maryland, says someone has repeatedly copied his Maryland vanity license plate, which reads "PRIVATE."
According to Rosenberg, the cloned plate has been linked to at least 20 traffic violations, most of them issued in Washington, D.C., and Prince George’s County.
FOX 5 spoke with Jay Rosenberg at his Vienna home where he showed stacks of citations, tickets, and violations, mostly from DC and Prince George's County, Maryland. The license plate pictured on the infractions says PRIVATE like Rosenberg's tag, but he says it's not his car.
In at least one case, the vehicle receiving the citation did not appear to have registration stickers matching his legitimate plate.
What they're saying:
"Why is it not picking up through AI that this is not the right tag for this car," Rosenberg told FOX 5.
"There are people that can go to places like Amazon and order a vanity tag… and put in your own numbers," he said.
Rosenberg says this all started a couple of years ago and only stopped once he sold the car in question and changed his license plate.
The backstory:
Rosenberg believes the issue is larger than his own case and may be occurring nationwide.
He says a friend in New York experienced a similar situation involving a cloned license plate.
"There are people who have to hire lawyers, who don't know how to fix them, who are getting their licenses suspended and now Kathy Hochul is suggesting whether it's police or camera, if you have too many tickets she's going to put a device in your car to slow it down," said Rosenberg.
What's next:
FOX 5 reached out to officials in both Washington and Prince George’s County.
A spokesperson for the District said they are looking into the matter. Prince George’s County had not responded as of publication.
FOX 5 also contacted several major speed camera manufacturers and vendors for comment but did not receive a response.