A black market for “ghost plates” is flourishing on sites like Facebook, TikTok and Craigslist, even as a statewide ban on the unreadable license plates — which help drivers evade tolls and fines for reckless driving — is due to take effect in a few days.
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine is pressuring the sites’ owners to prevent users from participating in the illegal practice. He sent letters on Tuesday to the heads of Craigslist, TikTok and Meta — which owns Facebook and Instagram — featuring photos of ghost plates listed on their sites and reminding them that the new law takes effect on Sept. 1.
“People who know their plates are obscured can speed or run red lights with impunity and that makes everyone less safe — pedestrians and everybody on city streets,” Levine said in an exclusive interview with Gothamist.
More than 5% of the vehicles currently passing through toll and traffic cameras are using ghost plates to avoid paying up, according to estimates from his office. And more than 100,000 of the vehicles triggering red lights and speed cameras each month are evading detection in the same way.
Officials say illegal plates are becoming more popular across the city. The number of unreadable license plates evading tolls and traffic fines increased by 30% between April and this month, costing the city up to $200 million annually, Gothamist previously reported.
The state introduced a task force to ramp up its ticketing of drivers with illegal plates in March. Meanwhile, some New York City residents have taken to removing license plate covers from the scofflaw vehicles on their own.
The law taking effect on Sept. 1 bans the sale of ghost plates throughout New York, Levine said. He said a quick search online allowed him to see which social media sites people were using to buy them.
But, the borough president added, the sites are still permitting sales of ghost plates even though they violate an older city law. He said he thinks the implementation of the state law should “be a good trigger to finally step up” enforcement.
“It needs to be done as soon as possible, because these things are spreading rapidly, there’s already countless thousands on the street,” Levine said. “There needs to be more enforcement to rein those in, which is another topic, but at a minimum, we gotta make it harder to obtain these devices. It’s far too easy now.”
John Lindsay, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office, said the governor had launched an interagency task force with Mayor Eric Adams to crack down on toll evasion.
“In just five months, the Governor’s efforts have led to hundreds of arrests and more than 1,500 vehicles being impounded and she will continue working with Mayor Adams and colleagues throughout government to make progress on this critical issue,” Lindsay said in a statement.
Meta, Craigslist and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.