Spate of Keyless Car Thefts in NI

[Cooper]

Reading this on the news earlier. How close do you have to be to a remote key to bounce the signal?

I know my own key has to be inside the car or there’s no chance, so range mustn’t be that great.

PSNI warning after 16 cars stolen in keyless thefts:

PSNI warning after 16 vehicles stolen in keyless thefts

Police believe thieves redirected the wireless signal while key fobs were still the owners' homes.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Nigelo]

Reading this on the news earlier. How close do you have to be to a remote key to bounce the signal?

I know my own key has to be inside the car or there’s no chance, so range mustn’t be that great.

PSNI warning after 16 cars stolen in keyless thefts:

PSNI warning after 16 vehicles stolen in keyless thefts

Police believe thieves redirected the wireless signal while key fobs were still the owners' homes.

www.bbc.co.uk

I keep my key in its little RFID blocker pouch at the other end of the house, but reckon i'll be putting up a driveway post soon.......

 

[Chris100]

Reading this on the news earlier. How close do you have to be to a remote key to bounce the signal?

I know my own key has to be inside the car or there’s no chance, so range mustn’t be that great.

PSNI warning after 16 cars stolen in keyless thefts:

PSNI warning after 16 vehicles stolen in keyless thefts

Police believe thieves redirected the wireless signal while key fobs were still the owners' homes.

www.bbc.co.uk

The devices they use capture the code from your key and emulate it for them to gain access to your car and start the engine.

The equipment they are using seems to be strong enough that they can stand at your front door and communicate with your key to get the code.

£10 will get you an RFID pouch off Amazon which prevents the signal from their device communicating with you key even if they are next to each other.

I keep my key in its little RFID blocker pouch at the other end of the house, but reckon i'll be putting up a driveway post soon.......

I had two delivered before the car was.

 

[Gambit]

I know my own key has to be inside the car

how do you lock/unlock the car if the key has to be inside it?

edit: assuming its keyless entry...

 

[Cooper]

Without getting too tinfoil hat about this, does anyone know how these devices actually work, signal strength, distances, walls, vehicles that are susceptible.

how do you lock/unlock the car if the key has to be inside it?

edit: assuming its keyless entry...

My car doesn't have comfort access - I should have said, so the key needs to be somewhere in the car to start it. So it needs a button press. I presume then thinking that through that this 'hack' works with cars that have a button on the outside and the RF gets in range and activates say a sensor under the door handle. BMW call that comfort access.

 

[Chris100]

Even comfort access cars require the key to be in the car to actually start it, my car has comfort access and unless the key is inside the car with you it won't start, it just flashes a message up saying the key is not in range

 

[Normski]

I know some folk can't stand him but Schmee done a good video about it, showed you the equipment some use and how to stop it

 

[Chris100]

I know some folk can't stand him but Schmee done a good video about it, showed you the equipment some use and how to stop it

An RFID pouch does the same job for a fraction of the price.

 

[mcmurray]

A guy who runs a company beside me had his pretty fresh Range Rover taken from the house earlier this year.

They make it look easy. CCTV and PIR lighting aren't much of a deterrent.

Watch: Masked men steal keyless car in 'sickening' theft

A man has warned owners of keyless cars to be aware after his vehicle was stolen from his driveway as his family slept upstairs.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

 

[Dave..]

A guy who runs a company beside me had his pretty fresh Range Rover taken from the house earlier this year.

They make it look easy. CCTV and PIR lighting aren't much of a deterrent.

Watch: Masked men steal keyless car in 'sickening' theft

A man has warned owners of keyless cars to be aware after his vehicle was stolen from his driveway as his family slept upstairs.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

They didn`t seem to be in a rush.

 

[hutchy_belfast]

They got in to my Volvo S90 last night turned it inside out but didn't get it away for some reason. Didn't damage or take a thing. So now I'm stuck blocking it in with the Mrs car or buying an old steering wheel lock neither I can particularly be bothered with. Must get the finger out and get the electric gates hung and sorted.

 

[hutchy_belfast]

Anyone know now that they've been at it once is that the key details saved ie could they lift it tonight even with the real keys miles away?

 

[Nicky Glanza]

The other one that I read in the telegraph mentioned that it was 16 cars across 2 counties over 6 months,

so on average that is a car taken every 1.5 weeks,

now if a crime gang had access to a relay computer that could take a car without keys surely that 16 figure would have a zero after it? considering the amount of people who have keyless entry cars now?

may be an unreasonable remark but I would suggest that a brave few of the 16 possibly couldn't afford their car finance payments....

 

[dddrrift]

RFID pouch in use here too, its just a bit of a pain if you carry a bunch of keys on the same ring as the car key.

 

[Gambit]

The other one that I read in the telegraph mentioned that it was 16 cars across 2 counties over 6 months,

so on average that is a car taken every 1.5 weeks,

now if a crime gang had access to a relay computer that could take a car without keys surely that 16 figure would have a zero after it? considering the amount of people who have keyless entry cars now?

may be an unreasonable remark but I would suggest that a brave few of the 16 possibly couldn't afford their car finance payments....

true...initially i thought the article was referring that it happened over the weekend

 

[Coog]

Biscuit tin not do the same job and save the messing with single key pouches?

Keyless is a bit of a curse. A friend got a new F-Pace and they were into it in the first few weeks. He's diskloking it now at home and has the pouch. So far it seems to be untouched since.

 

[Ghost]

Tins etc don't work.

Buy an RFD pouch for £5. It all depend on the kit they thieves have. I've seen thefts in England and the keys were 10/15 metres from the front of the house.

 

[Gambit]

Tins etc don't work.

Buy an RFD pouch for £5. It all depend on the kit they thieves have. I've seen thefts in England and the keys were 10/15 metres from the front of the house.

surely the pouch is just tinfoil lined?!

 

[Coog]

Tins etc don't work.

Buy an RFD pouch for £5. It all depend on the kit they thieves have. I've seen thefts in England and the keys were 10/15 metres from the front of the house.

Why wouldn't a tin work? Quite a few videos online showing they do.

 

[Ghost]

The rfid pouch is basically a Faraday bag. Have a quick Google.

I'm only going on reports from the main land. Give it a try yourself.

 

[VEN©M]

I know our Kona won't unlock the car when the key is literally more than half a metre from the car door so i always wondered whether the receiver in the car isn't particularly strong or the signal from the key is pretty limited. From watching the schmee muppet up above the security guy said the distance from the key to the first unit that picks up the signal and relays it has to be within a few metres of the key. I know it would be pretty easy to access cars for people who hang their keys on a hook just inside a pvc/glass door, but what about in a drawer on the other side of a brick wall etc.. we have an RFID pouch though.

 

[Ace_vaux]

I have an case for my key when it’s in the house and the spare is in a safe place with the same. As far as I could tell this stops them using a signal magnifier to open it by standing at the front or back door.

The original videos showed a focus RS being tested in a public car park where the thief and accomplice would catch you as you walked across the carpark and bounce the signal back to someone else beside the car to unlock it before you left the area, get inside and steal it.

 

[Ghost]

Why wouldn't a tin work? Quite a few videos online showing they do.

The tin thing is hit and miss basically. I'd rather protect my 20/30/40/50k Investment with a £5 bag. I should be a sales rep for these wee bags.

 

[Gambit]

The rfid pouch is basically a Faraday bag. Have a quick Google.

just a tinfoil lined bag in layman terms...same as a card sheath for contactless payment cards

 

[Eager]

Disk lock all day long. Amazing that it’s still needed in this day
However I do find it hilarious that manufacturers of cars at 50k or more still need you to go on eBay and order some we pouch. They should be addressing this with recalls and hardware/software changes