[rhinocaster]

It's worth being careful given the amount of fraud in this day and age. Where I work, we are very careful with serial numbers on used guitars for the reason previously stated. We buy and sell used guitars from all over the country. We then advertise these guitars as used on the internet and in print. Now people know the brand, color and condition of a used instrument. Why provide them with the last bit of information that would allow them to create a fraudulent stolen guitar claim?

Having said that, we run our used guitars through a police database that searches for stolen guitars. We do have people call up and say that we have a guitar that they think was stolen from them. If they have the serial number we can know immediately if we're talking about the same guitar.

As much as I wish that it wasn't true, people spend their days sitting around and thinking of good ways to rip honest people off. No serial number is going to make them work a bit harder.