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Lock
Your Car Manually, not With Wireless Remote-Fiction!
Summary of the eRumor: This is a warning that crooks can get the code
to the wireless locking system on your car. The email claims it
happened to someone in Canada. While stopped at a roadside park, a
man's locked car was easily accessed by someone who stole his cell phone,
laptop, GPS, briefcase, and more. The police allegedly said that
robbers were using a device that would clone the security code on the
wireless remote that is used for locking and unlocking the car.
The Truth: TruthOrFiction.com has not found any
documented case of a car being broken into by thieves using an electronic
cloning device to duplicate the code of a wireless remote.
This eRumor, which began circulating in July, 2008, does not include any
information about when, where, and to whom this event occurred.
The experts we consulted says that at the present time, such a criminal
event could not happen with most cars.
Virtually all of the cars that unlock with remote keyless devices are
protected by an encryption system called Keelog, which scrambles the
wireless transmissions so nobody could monitor and clone them.
According to MSNBC blogger Bob Sullivan, there is a group of researchers
in Israel and Belgium who claim to have discovered a way to figure out the
coding of a wireless locking system, but it's fairly time consuming and is
not being used by thieves.
This eRumor may have been sparked by the memory of some of the original
keyless systems first introduced in the 1980s. They were simpler and
it was easier for a hacker to detect the wireless code.
Updated July 28, 2008
A real example of the eRumor as it has
appeared on the Internet:
My oldest son came over yesterday- he had to go to Canada for work last
week. One of the other engineer's traveling to Canada with him, but in his
own car had something happen...that I need to share.
While traveling he stopped at the roadside park, similar
to what we have here with bathrooms, vending machines etc. He came out to
his car less than 4-5 minutes later and found someone had gotten into his
car, and stolen his cell phone, laptop computer, gps navigator,
briefcase.....you name it.
They called the police and since there were no signs of
his car being broke into- the police told him that 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 set a distance away
and watch for their next victim. Since they know you are going inside of
the store, restaurant, or bathroom and have a few minutes to steal and
run. The police office said...to be sure to manually lock your car door-by
hitting the lock button inside the car, that way if there is someone
setting 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 thru the airwaves where
it can be stolen.
I just wanted to let you know about this...it is
something totally new to us...and this is real...it just happened this
past Thursday June 19th to his co-worker...
so be aware of this and please pass this note on...look
how many times we all lock our doors with our keys...just to be sure we
remembered to lock them....and bingo the guys have our code...and whatever
was in the car...can be gone
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