We’ve been trying to tell people about this for years and now a story breaks in Albuquerque from NBC4 KOB-TV. Every day thousands of consumers hit the streets for their local car dealership to buy that new car. Dealerships very often have other aftermatket options for all kinds of drivers. Options for pre-paid vehicle maintenance, extended warranties, GAP, and security. Every day, many buyers turndown the available security options, and instead, pledge to rely on the standard factory anti-theft. Factory anti-theft as extremely vulnerable to a number of bypass measures. Essentially, it turns your vehicle into a beacon looking for your car key. Thieves are scanning vehicles for this technology and bypassing it. Our research indicates that the police cannot trace these scanners. A good vehicle immobilizer (not alarm, but immobilizer) will reverse the factory process and put the receiver in the vehicle and the transmitter on your keychain. It means having a little more on your keychain, but also picking up your car right where you left it. Enjoy the article.
Thieves find way around car security feature
By: Eyewitness News 4
Posted at: 09/20/2008 06:49:39 AM
It’s a convenience most modern cars have, but police say thieves have found a way to exploit the feature to steal your car.
The keyless remote has made it a lot easier to lock and unlock car doors at the press of a button. But their popularity has caught the attention of car thieves, who now have their own high tech way to take advantage.
Criminals are now hiding near cars with a device that can pick up the radio frequency sent between the keyless remote and the car.
Police say statistics on this theft method are hard to measure because thieves don’t have break in to the car.
”It is very difficult for us to put our finger on which car was stolen by using these methods, versus any other,” Detective Bill Webb of the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office’s auto theft unit said.
Because the Albuquerque metro area ranks seventh worst in the country for auto theft, Webb says keyless remote thefts are likely already happening here.
Police say criminals are targeting expensive vehicles because the equipment needed for the high-tech theft is also expensive.
“You have to have a radio receiver, you have to have it plugged into your computer, you have to know how to program all that to decipher the frequencies to operate the vehicle,” Webb said.
While this method of car theft may be news to you, some car makers are already working on ways to prevent it.
“A lot of European manufacturers will scramble the code, every time they use the remote entry or remote ignition it will scramble the code,” Webb said.
One way to keep your car safe: Lock the door manually, not with the remote.
Also VIN etching, in which a car’s identification number is placed on the vehicle’s windows, is another deterrent, police say.
