Major_Katz
No, deliberately changed plates doesn't apply to vanities but to plates that were changed on purpose, usually illegally.
Oh, ok. Also what about "transferred/reissued plate?" In Connecticut and New York, you are allowed to transfer your plate from your old car to your new car. You can usually tell if a plate has been transferred based on the letter/number combination and the type of plate it's on.
For example:

This is a reissued plate. The beginning letter combination "

WU" was originally used on blue and white Empire State plates. Empire State plates used the letter combinations "AAA-000" to "EYH-2999" from 2000-2010. In 2010, the orange and blue plates replaced the Empire State plates. People could choose to a) replace their current Empire State plates with the new orange and blue plates and have a new license plate number entirely, b) get a new license plate but keep the same letter/number combination or c) not do anything and just keep their current license plate and letter/number combination. The owner of this Mercedes-Benz chose b. So this would make it a "transferred/reissued plate".
Now look at this:
[http://img03.platesmania.com/210302/m/16270575.jpg]
This license plate combination "AHF" was distributed around 2001-2002. The car in question is a 2005 Chevrolet Malibu. This means that the owner had another car on these plates prior to putting the plates on this car. This would make it a transferred plate.