So sister's home got a wakeup call, a suspicious person with a hand-held device was caught wandering their neighborhood looking into vehicles checking door handles, police were called and this guy was found to have a number of 'breaking & entering' tools with him. Of interest was this device that police said was used to detect & mimic the radio signals of car keys and garage door openers. Prior I've only heard of this but, now looking at taking precautions.

There's plenty of Faraday pouches on the market but, looking for something that's sized a bit more functional for a multi-vehicle household. Anybody have suggestions for perhaps a drawer sized liner or something like a valet tray that has Faraday shielding?

When my son's car was stolen, it was a real wake-up call for me. I now have a Faraday box in which to store spare keys/fobs and Faraday pouches for the keys we carry and use. I also got covers for the OBD II port that are secured with security head screws.

corsair - take your pick...
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=far...r_ci_hl-bn-left_4_11

On the car I have that has a high theft rate (Chevy SS - which is what my son also had) I have also reverted to "old tech" and use the "Club" on the steering wheel anytime I am going to be away from the car for a period of time. Paranoid? Hell yes - sometimes they really are out to get you.

Adios,

Pizza Bob

You could check out MOS Equipment:

https://mosequipment.com/

They might have what you're looking for.

We use their RF shielding fabric for transponder tests on aircraft.

What is the distance on the signals from fobs?
I'm semi-rural, 200' from the roadway, can the scanners read them from that distance?

Just stick them in your microwave oven.

A signal that isn't transmitted cannot be detected. A quick net search tells me passive FOB's only work when you press the button, and active FOB's generally are activated by a low power signal from the vehicle. So, what good is a Faraday cage/pouch/drawer if the FOB isn't transmitting? Do these scanner mimic the proximity frequency hoping to trick an active FOB into transmitting?

I lock my doors manually when exiting in public areas.

A low tech solution is to have a hidden "kill switch" installed in the car. Switch must be on for the car to start. As far as garage doors go, if I really want it secured, like when I'm out of town, I pull the disconnect and padlock the rails.

quote:

Originally posted by Pizza Bob:I now have a Faraday box in which to store spare keys/fobs and Faraday pouches for the keys we carry and use. I also got covers for the OBD II port that are secured with security head screws.

Nice, thank you.

quote:

Originally posted by DrDan:
A signal that isn't transmitted cannot be detected. A quick net search tells me passive FOB's only work when you press the button, and active FOB's generally are activated by a low power signal from the vehicle. So, what good is a Faraday cage/pouch/drawer if the FOB isn't transmitting? Do these scanner mimic the proximity frequency hoping to trick an active FOB into transmitting?

My understanding is the car is constantly emitting for its familiar fob, once connected the fob will signal a response opening a connection. The hacking devices mimic the car's signal and amplifies it so that it can get a relay signal from the fob within the household. I'm sure there's a member that can better explain or clarify.

Maybe these fobs can come with power switches. Or some sort of rolling key system to verify car fob pair rather than spoof.

Btw, are cars that are WiFi or cell enables double exposed to hacking?

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Maybe these fobs can come with power switches.

Some Toyota fobs offer a "turn off" function.

On some, you press and hold the lock and unlock buttons simultaneously. (link)

Another site mentions holding down the lock button for 5-10 seconds to turn off the proximity features. (link)

The method I'm more familiar with involves holding down the lock button and pressing the unlock button twice. The LED on the fob will blink a couple of times, and at that point fob stops sending signal until you use the unlock button again.



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Thank you, Pizza Bob and two-two-niner-romeo, for the product links.

Wow. Good to know. I’ll try that out. Hope it’s for all model years and not just late model.

Works on my 2016 Tacoma fob.

quote:

Originally posted by DrDan:
A signal that isn't transmitted cannot be detected. A quick net search tells me passive FOB's only work when you press the button, and active FOB's generally are activated by a low power signal from the vehicle. So, what good is a Faraday cage/pouch/drawer if the FOB isn't transmitting? Do these scanner mimic the proximity frequency hoping to trick an active FOB into transmitting?

How they work is they aren’t mimicking anything. If your car has a push button start the fob is constantly talking to your car. It has a proximity sensor so even though they are talking the signal isn’t strong enough for someone to open the locked door and start your car.

Essentially the thief is using a booster. So if you keep your fob fairly close to the door a thief can stand right next to your door or even follow you into the hardware store and he will use the booster to massively amplify or boost the signal. Your car will then see a strong signal and the criminal who is boosting your signal will have an accomplice who is at your car. The accomplice can then get in your car and start it since your car is receiving a strong enough signal to think you are in the car with the fob.

How prevalent is this? How many occurrences per day in the US is this happening? Should one be worried? Or is this as likely as a lightening strike?

My fob has an accelerometer that shuts it off after 2 minutes if it isn't moved.

quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:
My fob has an accelerometer that shuts it off after 2 minutes if it isn't moved.

That's impressive. From the factory ?

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:

quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:
My fob has an accelerometer that shuts it off after 2 minutes if it isn't moved.

That's impressive. From the factory ?

That IS impressive.
And that reminds me… somewhere either in the vehicle settings or through the Carista app I used briefly, there was a similar setting. I think the shortest time I was able to choose was 1 day, though.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
How prevalent is this? How many occurrences per day in the US is this happening? Should one be worried? Or is this as likely as a lightening strike?

Extremely prevalent for Challengers and Camaro’s. So bad in fact that the factory and even dealerships basically forced the manufacturer to come up with a fix.

Imagine a group of guys breaking into a Dodge dealership were all the keys are all in one spot. The guy with the booster goes onto the floor near the keys and a bunch of guys just start opening doors and starting cars. There was a few dealers that lost multiple cars in one night.