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FM
Former Member
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 t o 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.

GARAGE DOOR REMOTE APPLIES AS WELL. IT CAN BE COPIED IN THE SAME WAY. DMcG

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

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quote:
Originally posted by Riya:
I don't think I can manually lock my garage door from the outside, like pull it down....I have to punch in a code. Wouldn't that still send the code through the airwave?

In any case if they stole my car, I'm doom...the garage opener is clipped on to the visor Big Grin


There is a wired keypad that you can attach outside the garage door.
FM
Sorry Rocky! Wink

Excerpt from Urban Legend:

Given the current state of remote keyless entry (RKE) technology, some version of the scenario described above may be theoretically possible, but it isn't a threat the average vehicle owner needs to worry about. Virtually all RKE systems use a form of data encryption adopted in the late 1990s known as KEELOQ, which, though it has been shown in experiments to be potentially vulnerable to hackers, still presents a formidable enough technological hurdle that most car thieves wouldn't even be able to attempt cracking it.

'Code grabbing' became obsolete in the late '90s

As written, the warning reads more like a blast from the past, when RKE technology was still in its infancy, than a cutting-edge informational alert. Compare it to this excerpt from a New York Times article dated July 14, 1996:

You park at the airport, remove your luggage, push the button on the key fob to lock the doors, and walk away thinking your car will be secure until you return. Think again.
Experts on vehicle theft say sophisticated car thieves have taken to hiding in parking lots where there is a lot of traffic, like those at airports, with high-tech recording devices. As you lock your car with the keyless remote control, the thieves record the signal that it transmits. After you leave, they play back the recording, unlock your car and steal it.

A similar warning was issued in a CBS News report aired in 1998:
Security specialist Ed Meenan of Avital Technologies showed us how a "Code Grabber" can secretly be used to pick up the keyless remote's signal. Only this transmitter doesn't just read the frequency, it records it and plays it back!
"So typically, what happens is a person will arm their alarm, which in fact does lock their doors, [and] walk into a mall knowing for a couple of hours that their car is protected," Meenan explains.

Not exactly. Now their car is defenseless to a "Code Grabber." And it's so easy to use. Armed with the electronic "code grabber," we could steal motorists' car keys right out of thin air.


That, however, was 10 years ago. Soon after these stories were published, the adoption of KEELOQ encryption made "code grabbing" a thing of the past.

While it's true that a 2007 study claimed to identify vulnerabilities in KEELOQ encryption, prompting some experts to call for improvements, others downplayed its real-world significance. "There is not a whole lot of threat to the end consumer," PGP Corp. chief technology officer Jon Callas explained to MSNBC in August of last year. "A guy with a Slim Jim is a bigger threat."

Source: http://urbanlegends.about.com/...iles/a/car_locks.htm
Mitwah
quote:
Originally posted by alena:
Have to remember to lock manually.

IF they get a hold of ur Gps and remote for ur garage ur in big trouble. They can search for home on ur Gps, go to ur house and open ur garage to get in.
Smile
Skites am I over analysing?


It is a good idea not to enter your exact home address in the GPS - maybe a house a block away.
FM

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