What's the rationale behind obscuring serial numbers in photos?

[6CAB5N]

I see them redacted all the time, but I'm wondering what the reason is. What can people do with a serial number if they get it?

I'm actually asking due to a non-watch related issue. I'm selling a DSLR on ebay and a guy asked me to post a picture of the SN.

Should I post the photo or do I have a legitimate reason to tell the guy to get bent?

[Abdullah71601]

Post the first half.

The concern is that someone could report your watch stolen from them.

[AzPaul]

Originally Posted by 6CAB5N

I see them redacted all the time, but I'm wondering what the reason is. What can people do with a serial number if they get it?

I'm actually asking due to a non-watch related issue. I'm selling a DSLR on ebay and a guy asked me to post a picture of the SN.

Should I post the photo or do I have a legitimate reason to tell the guy to get bent?

He may be curious about the age of the watch, so there's no problem with posting the first few numbers, enough to identify the range of a particular year, but definitely not wise to show the number in its entirety.

[6CAB5N]

Originally Posted by Abdullah71601

Post the first half.

The concern is that someone could report your watch stolen from them.

Ahhhh. OK. Fortunately, I'm the registered owner -- I've had to have it serviced before. Yep, I'll obscure the rest. Thanks for the tip.

[OgSnowflake]

If somebody wanted to be a real savage they could use serial number to generate a fake receipt or bill of sale and they have a picture of the watch and they could call there insurance company and insure a bunch of stuff they don’t really own and then all of a sudden lose said stuff they don’t own and in return get paid big and then when or if the legit owner goes to get some warranty work done his watch gets seized cuz it’s been flagged as stolen/lost in the registry in an insurance claim case. Or some variant of the above. And complete nightmares occur.