Keyless theft.

[wil992]

Been reading this morning about keyless theft of modern cars and it got me thinking about taking steps to prevent it.

My keys are kept in a drawer, roughly 15 feet from the door. I’ve always assumed this is far enough to block what must be a realitvely weak signal from the key, but is this correct? If not, I assume any metal box inside the drawer would guarantee it? Is there any way of finding out whether the key can be detected outside?

Btw, I have a steering wheel lock and s tracker too, but don’t want to take any chances.

Thanks.

 

[Peter103]

If you press the lock button twice when locking it should disable the key fob signal.

 

[whitenemesis]

Or use a Faraday pouch, many available on eBay or Amazon. Be careful with random metal boxes, some work, many don't.
Thieves use signal boosters and can detect an unshielded key pretty much anywhere in the house.

 

[Delayed Steve]

And then they'll break in your house and threaten you with a machete and take the keys off you in person.
This happened in Birmingham a few weeks ago, shown on Central News,
He came home from work put his A45 in the garage and they jumped him between his garage and his front door and took the keys and car. In 2017 the same guy had to intruders in his house who hit him with iron bars for the keys to his last A45.
It's a car if they want it they'll have it, one way or another . It's not worth burdening the NHS by making it difficult for them..

 

[Gazwould]

Making news as per usual , it's manufacturer flawed technology and they should be made accountable to change it with a recall .

Hundreds of popular cars ‘at risk of keyless theft’

 

[BMF]

My missus has just sent me a link to a "Which" magazine test on this very subject:
Most of UK's top-selling keyless cars at risk of theft, says Which?

 

[GeeJayW]

And then they'll break in your house and threaten you with a machete and take the keys off you in person.
This happened in Birmingham a few weeks ago, shown on Central News,
He came home from work put his A45 in the garage and they jumped him between his garage and his front door and took the keys and car. In 2017 the same guy had to intruders in his house who hit him with iron bars for the keys to his last A45.
It's a car if they want it they'll have it, one way or another . It's not worth burdening the NHS by making it difficult for them..

^ Agree.

This happened to one of the guys here. Basically they crow-barred his front door open and demanded the keys with menaces...

Also a friend of mine had his new C43 Coupe stolen after owning it for 6-days. The thieves broke into his house at stupid o'clock in the morning, found the keys inside a tin box in the kitchen cupboard and just drove it away. All with him and his missus fast asleep upstairs.

 

[BMF]

^ Agree.

This happened to one of the guys here. Basically they crow-barred his front door open and demanded the keys with menaces...

Also a friend of mine had his new C43 Coupe stolen after owning it for 6-days. The thieves broke into his house at stupid o'clock in the morning, found the keys inside a tin box in the kitchen cupboard and just drove it away. All with him and his missus fast asleep upstairs.

To some extent I feel happier that I live in a block of thirty flats, so the keys are nowhere near the car at night and there is cctv systems fitted monitoring access 24/7.

 

[BMF]

If you press the lock button twice when locking it should disable the key fob signal.

My owners manual says that the key needs to be no further that 1 meter from the vehicle to operate the keyless entry and start systems so anyone cloning this signal would need to be stood next to me at the time.

 

[Deleted member 126251]

Or use a Faraday pouch, many available on eBay or Amazon. Be careful with random metal boxes, some work, many don't.
Thieves use signal boosters and can detect an unshielded key pretty much anywhere in the house.

Or supermarket or while you are walking down the street......"Faraday" pouches pretty much defat the whole purpose of having keyless systems....

I'd rather they took the car (i.e. leave the keys where they are easy to find/hack) than wake up with a masked stranger in my bedroom demanding the keys - which apparently, is becoming more common place.....

A house 2 doors up from my son had an Audi taken from the drive ---CCTV actually showed the thieves wandering around inside the house. If they are that brazen, they will not worry about visiting you in your bedroom to demand the keys. The police told them that there had been a series of Audi thefts (stolen to order) in the surrounding areas ---

No doubt this applies to the other quality brands .....Range Rovers are popular for Eastern Europe and Africa.

 

[Deleted member 126251]

I believe that MB have/will have a new unit where the 'keyless' system goes dormant when the key has not been moved for a specified amount of time.

 

[Deleted member 126251]

My owners manual says that the key needs to be no further that 1 meter from the vehicle to operate the keyless entry and start systems so anyone cloning this signal would need to be stood next to me at the time.

Apparently they have systems in backpacks and can follow you around the supermarket etc while an accomplice waits at the car!

 

[190]

The fact that thieves will break into your house and attack you with an iron bar is absolutely irrelevant to key less go and no excuse for the manufacturers supplying cars with poor security. They could break in and demand conventional keys in just the same way.

The most annoying aspect of this media expose' is that the manufacturers or trade association trot out the tired old response that cars have never been so well protected against theft which is patently nonsense when key less go makes it so easy for the smarter thieves.

 

[Dryce]

It's a car if they want it they'll have it, one way or another . It's not worth burdening the NHS by making it difficult for them..

So keyless go is actually a good thing then? Lets the crims get on with the job without disturbing you.

I guess those of us without should make sure that we put our keys in plain view of a window or door - maybe should get a little LED sign to tell the bad huys where to look.

I guess we could go further - set up an online registry that the crims could access to confirm that we are keyless or that our keys are conveniently available. I'm happy to set up a web service that owners and crims could subscribe to. The owners could register whethere they are keyless or not - or where the keys can be acquired. The crims can subscribe to a standard service which gives them the first few letters/digits of the post code and a premium service that provides full street address. And the premium deluxe service that looks up the car details and does a HPI check. Owners could sign up to an additional notification service that let them know if crims had looked up their details - so they can make sure that the car is not blocked in and they keys are appropriately positioned to make sure that the whole transaction is as smooth as possible for both parties.

I can't decide between

www.air-gta.com

or

www.youtakeanycar.com

 

[Yugguy]

Indeed.

Feck me.

Keyless go is better as it makes robbing you easier?

By that logic we may as well not bother locking our cars or houses.

 

[John N]

So keyless go is actually a good thing then? Lets the crims get on with the job without disturbing you.

I guess those of us without should make sure that we put our keys in plain view of a window or door - maybe should get a little LED sign to tell the bad huys where to look.

Think Technology here: A Led that shines the Mercedes Star Logo on the Wall Ceiling or into the Night Sky, Like Batman!

I guess we could go further - set up an online registry that the crims could access to confirm that we are keyless or that our keys are conveniently available. I'm happy to set up a web service that owners and crims could subscribe to. The owners could register whethere they are keyless or not - or where the keys can be acquired. The crims can subscribe to a standard service which gives them the first few letters/digits of the post code and a premium service that provides full street address. And the premium deluxe service that looks up the car details and does a HPI check. Owners could sign up to an additional notification service that let them know if crims had looked up their details - so they can make sure that the car is not blocked in and they keys are appropriately positioned to make sure that the whole transaction is as smooth as possible for both parties.

I can't decide between

www.air-gta.com

or

www.youtakeanycar.com

I can't think why the Criminal Fraternity would be bother doing a HPI Check either?

 

[BMF]

So keyless go is actually a good thing then? Lets the crims get on with the job without disturbing you.

I guess those of us without should make sure that we put our keys in plain view of a window or door - maybe should get a little LED sign to tell the bad huys where to look.

I guess we could go further - set up an online registry that the crims could access to confirm that we are keyless or that our keys are conveniently available. I'm happy to set up a web service that owners and crims could subscribe to. The owners could register whethere they are keyless or not - or where the keys can be acquired. The crims can subscribe to a standard service which gives them the first few letters/digits of the post code and a premium service that provides full street address. And the premium deluxe service that looks up the car details and does a HPI check. Owners could sign up to an additional notification service that let them know if crims had looked up their details - so they can make sure that the car is not blocked in and they keys are appropriately positioned to make sure that the whole transaction is as smooth as possible for both parties.

I can't decide between

www.air-gta.com

or

www.youtakeanycar.com

Indeed.

Feck me.

Keyless go is better as it makes robbing you easier?

By that logic we may as well not bother locking our cars or houses.

And then the ultimate insult to injury of while you are walking down the road to the bus stop/train station because some scum stole your car you get run over by the bus.

 

[Dryce]

I can't think why the Criminal Fraternity would be bother doing a HPI Check either?

Why not - if the whole car stealing thing is organised properly?

Click on car you'd like to take on the site. Get HPI info - ah - turns out the valuation says it's not worth it, or that it's got a mileage discrepancy, or it's been written off. After all if you're going to spend your time stealing cars you want to make best use of it - don't want to turn up and discover that you're nicking something with an expired MOT or a really high mileage. Do you want that C63 with 80,000 miles and three owners or the C63 with 20,000 miles and 1 owner?

I was also thinking of an Uber tie for those crims without a bus pass or a mate to drive them to the victim's house. Click on car, do HPI check, click to book taxi to get you to the site of the impending crime.

 

[400ixl]

My owners manual says that the key needs to be no further that 1 meter from the vehicle to operate the keyless entry and start systems so anyone cloning this signal would need to be stood next to me at the time.

Having worked with a security test team that built a kit to test this a few years back, for most manufacturers we could activate the signal from a lot more than 1 metre away, as much as 3 metres was typical.

Faraday pouches etc do work (although some better than others) so do test them (put the key in and see if the door unlocks as you approach), and test them regulary as they have been known to fail over time for some reason.

As stated, it really makes no difference whether you have keyless go if you have disabled its use. As for generally keeping keys in doors. Personally I do not keep them in sight from any windows, but equally do not hide them away either. I certainly wouldn't be taking them into any upstairs rooms where they would have to come and search for them. If they break into the house for them, I'd rather they did not have to interact with anyone. As long as I met the requirements of my insurer to be covered then that is where I would feel the need to stop. Family safety first whilst taking reasonable measures.

 

[wil992]

Having worked with a security test team that built a kit to test this a few years back, for most manufacturers we could activate the signal from a lot more than 1 metre away, as much as 3 metres was typical.

Faraday pouches etc do work (although some better than others) so do test them (put the key in and see if the door unlocks as you approach), and test them regulary as they have been known to fail over time for some reason.

As stated, it really makes no difference whether you have keyless go if you have disabled its use. As for generally keeping keys in doors. Personally I do not keep them in sight from any windows, but equally do not hide them away either. I certainly wouldn't be taking them into any upstairs rooms where they would have to come and search for them. If they break into the house for them, I'd rather they did not have to interact with anyone. As long as I met the requirements of my insurer to be covered then that is where I would feel the need to stop. Family safety first whilst taking reasonable measures.

Yes - this.

Hence my question about preventing keyless theft.

Once they're in the house, id' rather they got the keys and ****ed off. I have no interest in me or family being injured protecting a car.

But, if i can prevent them from nicking it without even coming inside, then hopefully they'll move on to an easier target.

Mine has cctv, a tracker, a steering wheel lock and an alarm on the house, so it's probably not an easy target, but still, i'd be interested to know what the parameters are for being safe from keyless theft outside the house and whether a key in a drawer 12feet from the door is likely to be detectable by one of the signal amplifiers these thieves use.