How to Lock Your Car and Why (This has Happened on SunshineCoast)
An incident similar to this happened to a friend who parked at a shopping center, on the SunshineCoastabout a month ago,
There was no sign of a breakin but he lost Laptop, Navman,Camera, and other valuables from his car and the boot.
Do NOT lock your car at Shopping Malls, Service stations etc. using the remote.
Use the Car's Door Key...........
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 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 into cars.
Two weeks later, my friend's son had a similar happening....While travelling, 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 mobile phone, laptop computer, sat nav, briefcase......you name it.
They do not steal your car but everything of value is gone.
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 remote 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 with the key -- that way if there is someone sitting in a parking lot watching for their next victim, it will not be you.
When you lock up with the key upon exiting, it does not send the security code, but if you walk away and use the remote button, 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
Aussie Paul.
D and D said
08:45 PM Mar 30, 2014
Since some degree of authenticity was claimed by using the Snopes approval I thought I check it up. Surprise, surprise ... Snopes neither confirms nor disputes the story but does lean more on the dispute side stating that there is no evidence of this happening. http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/lockcode.asp
Delta18 said
08:55 PM Mar 30, 2014
Did this REALLY happen to a friend of yours or are you forwarding a spurious email attachment designed to be spread far & wide? The aim is to spread alarm, & fear.
Be careful if it is an email fwd, these are known to carry virus' at times and this one is well known too.
aussie_paul said
09:28 PM Mar 30, 2014
Delta18 wrote:
Did this REALLY happen to a friend of yours or are you forwarding a spurious email attachment designed to be spread far & wide? The aim is to spread alarm, & fear.
Be careful if it is an email fwd, these are known to carry virus' at times and this one is well known too.
No, not to a friend of mine. I copied and paste rather than forward the email.
Aussie Paul. :)
Plendo said
10:04 PM Mar 30, 2014
This is an OLD story, it has been around since the electronic lock. You can tell when news is quiet because the TV current affairs infomercials roll it out as their scare mongering for the week.
Radio Frequency (RF) door locks use rolling codes, what this means is that the car locking system, and the remote have a formula built in that calculates the next code, and only codes that follow the correct formula will activate the system. Capturing one lock code will do nothing for the supposed thieves, if they captured dozens of codes in sequence, then applied a very smart bit of code breaking they may be able to work out a valid code after many hours of work. They can not just replay the last code used, it is no longer valid.
This wiki article gives a good overview.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_code
Umpie1 said
03:19 PM Mar 31, 2014
Plendo wrote:
This is an OLD story, it has been around since the electronic lock. You can tell when news is quiet because the TV current affairs infomercials roll it out as their scare mongering for the week.
Radio Frequency (RF) door locks use rolling codes, what this means is that the car locking system, and the remote have a formula built in that calculates the next code, and only codes that follow the correct formula will activate the system. Capturing one lock code will do nothing for the supposed thieves, if they captured dozens of codes in sequence, then applied a very smart bit of code breaking they may be able to work out a valid code after many hours of work. They can not just replay the last code used, it is no longer valid.
This wiki article gives a good overview.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_code
While it may be an old story, I like to work on the theory that what man can make man can unmake, and there are some very smart hackers out there.
PJK said
05:05 PM Mar 31, 2014
Even if this story was true, locking your car with the key will only lock the car - not set the alarm, and not set the immobliser.
So, for real security it is better to use your remote whenever possible.
PJK
The dog lady said
07:56 PM Apr 1, 2014
Don't know about people cloning your remote when you lock your car, BUT I know for a fact that there are enterprising thieves who can unlock remote locking systems. In 2003 in Cairns somebody unlocked and cleared out over twenty 2000 model fords, including all the government ones parked outside the government office where I worked! Yes, including the one I used and they took all my CDs. Govt insurance said personal property not covered by insurance too
hako said
08:47 PM Apr 1, 2014
PJK wrote:
Even if this story was true, locking your car with the key will only lock the car - not set the alarm, and not set the immobliser.
So, for real security it is better to use your remote whenever possible.
PJK
In most cars, the immobiliser is in the keyhead and the remote only locks/unlocks the doors....nothing else.
It pays to actually check that all doors are actually locked as the lock actuators are only small electric motors with plastic gears and arms and they can and do fail. I had one go in My Territory and for all I know it could have been unlocked for weeks, months or years? Same with leaving windows down a few inches - they sometimes can be forced down with a bit of pressure which snaps the mechanism....probably why the police now can book you if they are down a certain amount.
PeterD said
03:30 PM Apr 2, 2014
The dog lady wrote:
Don't know about people cloning your remote when you lock your car, BUT I know for a fact that there are enterprising thieves who can unlock remote locking systems. In 2003 in Cairns somebody unlocked and cleared out over twenty 2000 model fords, including all the government ones parked outside the government office where I worked! Yes, including the one I used and they took all my CDs.
Back in those days the rolling codes were a bit simpler. My Disco D2 rolled through 4 codes. I don't know if they all used the same 4 codes. If they all used the came codes then it would only take attempts to score the correct one.
PJK said
11:18 AM Apr 3, 2014
hako wrote:
PJK wrote:
Even if this story was true, locking your car with the key will only lock the car - not set the alarm, and not set the immobliser.
So, for real security it is better to use your remote whenever possible.
PJK
In most cars, the immobiliser is in the keyhead and the remote only locks/unlocks the doors....nothing else.
It pays to actually check that all doors are actually locked as the lock actuators are only small electric motors with plastic gears and arms and they can and do fail. I had one go in My Territory and for all I know it could have been unlocked for weeks, months or years? Same with leaving windows down a few inches - they sometimes can be forced down with a bit of pressure which snaps the mechanism....probably why the police now can book you if they are down a certain amount.
Thanks for the update Hako.
Must admit my "new" car is a 2002 model, so things would have changed since then.
Not going to replace that car though, still runs like new and not a single rattle.
PJK
Bello said
07:17 AM Apr 4, 2014
I can't lock my 4wd with a key. There is no key hole in the door, only a "hidden" hole to open the door if the remote does not work.
How to Lock Your Car and Why (This has Happened on SunshineCoast)
Since some degree of authenticity was claimed by using the Snopes approval I thought I check it up. Surprise, surprise ... Snopes neither confirms nor disputes the story but does lean more on the dispute side stating that there is no evidence of this happening. http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/lockcode.asp
Did this REALLY happen to a friend of yours or are you forwarding a spurious email attachment designed to be spread far & wide? The aim is to spread alarm, & fear.
Be careful if it is an email fwd, these are known to carry virus' at times and this one is well known too.
No, not to a friend of mine. I copied and paste rather than forward the email.
Aussie Paul. :)
This is an OLD story, it has been around since the electronic lock. You can tell when news is quiet because the TV current affairs infomercials roll it out as their scare mongering for the week.
Radio Frequency (RF) door locks use rolling codes, what this means is that the car locking system, and the remote have a formula built in that calculates the next code, and only codes that follow the correct formula will activate the system. Capturing one lock code will do nothing for the supposed thieves, if they captured dozens of codes in sequence, then applied a very smart bit of code breaking they may be able to work out a valid code after many hours of work. They can not just replay the last code used, it is no longer valid.
This wiki article gives a good overview.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_code
While it may be an old story, I like to work on the theory that what man can make man can unmake, and there are some very smart hackers out there.
So, for real security it is better to use your remote whenever possible.
PJK
Don't know about people cloning your remote when you lock your car, BUT I know for a fact that there are enterprising thieves who can unlock remote locking systems. In 2003 in Cairns somebody unlocked and cleared out over twenty 2000 model fords, including all the government ones parked outside the government office where I worked! Yes, including the one I used and they took all my CDs. Govt insurance said personal property not covered by insurance too
In most cars, the immobiliser is in the keyhead and the remote only locks/unlocks the doors....nothing else.
It pays to actually check that all doors are actually locked as the lock actuators are only small electric motors with plastic gears and arms and they can and do fail. I had one go in My Territory and for all I know it could have been unlocked for weeks, months or years? Same with leaving windows down a few inches - they sometimes can be forced down with a bit of pressure which snaps the mechanism....probably why the police now can book you if they are down a certain amount.
Back in those days the rolling codes were a bit simpler. My Disco D2 rolled through 4 codes. I don't know if they all used the same 4 codes. If they all used the came codes then it would only take attempts to score the correct one.
Thanks for the update Hako.
Must admit my "new" car is a 2002 model, so things would have changed since then.
Not going to replace that car though, still runs like new and not a single rattle.
PJK
A good story but not worth all the talk.