13 replies to this topic

[camay2327]

How to Lock Your Car and NOT have everything Stolen

 

 

All of us with the new electronic alarms, etc think our car is safe.
Sorry....
Crooks seem to find workarounds so everyone with a car with a key alarm system should

read this.
If you do not follow the suggestion, don't complain if you fall prey!!!!!
This applies to Mercedes, BMW's, Ford's, Chevy's. and all other makes and models...

 

 

 

Another thing we have to worry about in this age of technology How to Lock Your Car and Why I locked my car. As I walked away I heard my car door unlock. I went back and locked my car again three times. Each time, as soon as I started to walk away, I would hear it unlock again!! Naturally alarmed, I looked around and there were two guys sitting in a car in the fire lane next to the store. They were obviously watching me intently, and there was no doubt they were somehow involved in this very weird situation . I quickly chucked the errand I was on, jumped in my car and sped away. I went straight to the police station, told them what had happened, and found out I was part of a new, and very successful, scheme being used to gain entry into cars. Two weeks later, my friend's son had a similar happening.... While traveling, my friend's son stopped at a roadside rest to use the bathroom. When he came out to his car less than 4-5 minutes later, someone had gotten into his car and stolen his cell phone, laptop computer, GPS navigator, briefcase.....you name it. He called the police and since there were no signs of his car being broken into, the police told him he had been a victim of the latest robbery tactic -- there is a device that robbers are using now to clone your security code when you lock your doors on your car using your key-chain locking device.. They sit a distance away and watch for their next victim. They know you are going inside of the store, restaurant, or bathroom and that they now have a few minutes to steal and run. The police officer said to manually lock your car door-by hitting the lock button inside the car -- that way if there is someone sitting in a parking lot watching for their next victim, it will not be you. When you hit the lock button on your car upon exiting, it does not send the security code, but if you walk away and use the door lock on your key chain, it sends the code through the airwaves where it can be instantly stolen. This is very real. Be wisely aware of what you just read and please pass this note on. Look how many times we all lock our doors with our remote just to be sure we remembered to lock them -- and bingo, someone has our code...and whatever was in our car. Snopes Approved -- Please Share with Everyone You Know

[Deb aka Resume Lady]

This is not "Snopes approved." I don't even know what "approved" means; Snopes tells you if info is true or false. They say the info and similar versions are a mixture of true/false. http://www.snopes.co...no/lockcode.asp

 

Origins:   Automobile remote keyless entry systems (RKE) were introduced in the 1980s. They've proved to be a big hit, making it easier for the grocery-laden to unlock their cars and sparing many of the terminally forgetful from finding they've left their keys in the ignitions of their now-locked vehicles or their purses on the seats of same.

The earliest RKE systems were quite vulnerable to the sort of attack described in the warning e-mails quoted above. Their RF transmitters (usually built into key fobs) sent unique identifying codes that could be picked off by 'code grabbers,' devices that recorded the codes sent out when drivers pushed buttons on their remote key fobs to lock or unlock their cars.

However, times change and technology advances. In response to the fixed code security weakness, automakers shifted from RKEs with fixed codes to systems   employing rolling random codes. These codes change every time a given RKE system is used to lock or unlock car doors and thus rendered the earlier 'code grabbers' ineffective. That form of more robust code system became the industry standard for remote keyless entry systems in the mid-1990s, so automobiles newer than that are not vulnerable to being quickly and easily opened by criminals armed with the first generation of code grabbers.

It is theoretically possible for a thief armed with the right technology and the ability to manipulate it correctly to snatch a modern keycode from the air and use it to enter a vehicle. However, it's unclear how many (if any) crooks have managed to overcome the issues of complexity and time involved in the process to use it as a practical means of stealing from cars. If the scheme requires would-be thieves to have specialized knowledge and equipment and spend hours (or more) crunching data and replicating a device to produce a correct entry code, its application to boosting valuables from cars in parking lots would be rather limited. As Microchip Technology, the manufacturer of KEELOQ brand RKE systems, noted of this possibility:

The theoretical attack requires detailed knowledge of the system implementation and a combination of data, specialized skills, equipment and access to various components of a system which is seldom feasible. These theoretical attacks are not unique to the Keeloq system and could be applied to virtually any security system.

So far we haven't encountered any documented cases of items being stolen from locked cars via entry gained through the use of code grabbers, much less evidence that it's a widespread form of theft. There have been a few reported incidents of thieves' managing to gain entry to locked vehicles through the apparent use of some form of electronic device, but the specific nature of those devices has yet to be determined. In some similar cases it has been speculated that thieves who have been stealing purses and other valuables from parked vehicles have been using a device that blocks remote keyless signals and thus prevents car doors from locking (rather than using a device that emulates remote keyless signals to open locked doors).

One of the versions of this warning circulated in 2008 contained the contact information for Const. Wally Henry, an RCMP officer from Sherwood Park, Alberta. Henry disclaimed the story being spread in his name, saying in his voice mail message to those who telephoned, "If your call is concerning an e-mail with my name attached to it, please be advised that the information in that e-mail is false, and please do not disseminate it any further."
Read more at http://www.snopes.co...AbEOlmuDUDXm.99

[camay2327]

Did you know that if you lock yourself out of your vehicle, leave your keys in the vehicle, and you have

a cell phone you can possibly get in by using your cell phone?

 

My wife accidentally locked her keys in the trunk of her car. She called me at home and I had

a remote control for her vehicle.  She held the phone close to the drivers door and I keyed the

button on my remote control and it unlocked her car door. She was then able to open the

trunk.

 

It does work.

 

FYI

[ducky]

Did you know that if you lock yourself out of your vehicle, leave your keys in the vehicle, and you have

a cell phone you can possibly get in by using your cell phone?

 

My wife accidentally locked her keys in the trunk of her car. She called me at home and I had

a remote control for her vehicle.  She held the phone close to the drivers door and I keyed the

button on my remote control and it unlocked her car door. She was then able to open the

trunk.

 

It does work.

 

FYI

 

That was pretty clever.  

[Homer]

Did you know that if you lock yourself out of your vehicle, leave your keys in the vehicle, and you have

a cell phone you can possibly get in by using your cell phone?

 

My wife accidentally locked her keys in the trunk of her car. She called me at home and I had

a remote control for her vehicle.  She held the phone close to the drivers door and I keyed the

button on my remote control and it unlocked her car door. She was then able to open the

trunk.

 

It does work.

 

FYI

 

 

That's pretty cool, A while back my wife locked her keys in the car, It would of been nice to know about this then. Recently on the news there was a story about thieves using some kind of electric device to pop doors on cars, It didn't look like they were grabbing codes from remotes. In the surveillance video it showed the thief walk up to the car with a box in his hand which somehow unlocks the car. The code grabber from remotes have been around a while. 

[camay2327]

Cheesesteak,  I know it works because I did it. I don't know if it will work on her new 2013 Buick but it

did work on her 1993 Buick Regal.  I haven't tried it on her new one.

 

I will check it out and let you know.

[camay2327]

I did some research - and am more convinced it is actually not possible. Even if a cell phone could "hear" the RF signal from a key fob - Cell phones and key fobs operate on wholly different frequencies. Apparently - mythbusters debunked this myth as well.

http://urbanlegends....unlock_door.htm

http://m.youtube.com...h?v=oC_YdJeXouE

 

 

Cheesesteak, well it does WORK.

 

I locked my wife's car in the garage and took the remote inside the house to her.  I took our cell phone out to the garage and called

her on our house phone. It is tied into Comcast package with TV and Internet. She had the remote and held it up to our house phone

and clicked the remote to open the car door. I held the cell phone near the handle of the car door and I could hear it click and

I was able to open the door.  IT DOES WORK.....

 

Try it.

[ducky]

Are you sure it wasn't just because the remote would have worked from inside the house by itself anyway?

[mrdavex]

Giving my opinion as an electrical engineer, Cheesesteak is correct.  Car and garage door opener remotes transmit at 433 MHz.  Cell phone mics and speakers can only pick up and reproduce frequencies between 20 Hz and 20 KHz, as humans can only hear within this range.  Telephone call audio is even further capped to 3.4 kHz, as the majority of human speech is audible within that range.  The audio compression algorithms used in your phone will filter out anything above 3.4 kHz.  Even your mic acts as a electro-mechanical low-pass filter and keeps out all the high-frequencies.  So there's no way to transmit your remote's signal.  

 

Cal, those remotes can have a pretty long range.  Just like Ducky suspected, the signal was making its way back to your car on its own, without the assistance of the cell phone.  Not convinced, drive your car a couple miles away from your house, and repeat the experiment.  Wish I could try it myself, but my car doesn't even have power locks.    

[DalOwnerX3]

BTW - From inside the house, I can use the remote to unlock my car which is sitting in the driveway.   

 

camay - Try it without the phone to rule out the possibility that it's not just the remote has such a strong signal.

[camay2327]

BTW - From inside the house, I can use the remote to unlock my car which is sitting in the driveway.   

 

camay - Try it without the phone to rule out the possibility that it's not just the remote has such a strong signal.

I did yesterday and you are right. The remote did open the car door from inside of the house.

I agree with you all.   Sorry.

[ducky]

No need to say sorry.  Thanks for doing a myfolsom mythbusters for us.  Like mrdavex, my car doesn't have power locks or I would have tried it myself.