Someone opened my car! ¿How?

[CharleyCarlos]

Maybe get a security camera.

Could easily have been left unlocked, but be aware of the pitfalls of keyless tech.

There are thieves with repeaters and other devices that can amplify your fob signal to they can unlock the door even when you are a significant distance away. If you are worried you can get a signal-blocking pouch to keep keys in at home.

There are other devices that can mimic your phone somehow to open doors and start car.

You can look it up, there are some news stories about this.

I know someone whose new car was stolen by mimicking the PAAK communications. Started his car while he was at an event, put his home address into his GPS, got into his house with garage opener, took everything of value, drove off with his car.

I have no idea how to defeat PAAK hacking.

some people have a locking door between garage and house to prevent using car to get into the house at least.

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[Kabish]

I personally think having devices close to where the car is no good. There are a lot of natural factors that could make that distance be higher or lower.

Just a PSA since I did not see anyone mention it, just something to keep in the back of your mind. A LARGE population of people leave their keys fairly close to their front door. This makes it INCREDIBLY easy for someone to get your fob signal and retransmit it closer to the car. That makes it a SNAP for some basic rift raft to steal your car.

Don't leave your fob anywhere close to a door, better yet, buy a faraday bag and hang that by your door and throw your keys in it.

An example, way more on YouTube:


Dammit @CharleyCarlos beat me to the post cause I was looking for a video lol

 

[Kabish]

put his home address into his GPS

Also this!!!

You should never have your home set in your GPS, always set it to your city. Down side to EVs though is that if someone really wanted to spend the time they could look at your charge locations and get your house address or even look at your history.

 

[Motomax]

I was today years old when i learned about this… ?

Tapping the bottom two numbers on the keypad will also lock the door. If I remember correctly the middle button after putting the code in opens the trunk as well.

 

[Kabish]

Tapping the bottom two numbers on the keypad will also lock the door. If I remember correctly the middle button after putting the code in opens the trunk as well.

Yup, how I lock my car every day at work. I did not realize that you could pop the back though. My little lock button below the numbers works maybe 5% of the time if that.. I always have to use the double finger to lock it.

 

[Motomax]

There are other devices that can mimic your phone somehow to open doors and start car.

You can look it up, there are some news stories about this.

I haven’t see those stories, do you have a link? Paak is more than just mimicking a Bluetooth signal, that’s why people have so many issues with it.
Now relay attacks on FOBs is child’s play, keyless cars are easier to steal than one with a non chipped key ignition haha.

 

[RedStallion]

some people have a locking door between garage and house to prevent using car to get into the house at least.

Get a smart security device at home, i.e. a large fierce dog.

 

[67 Stang Convertible]

Question: How do you lock the car normally? I read above about the "double tap" on the key pad. I exclusively use the walk away feature myself (I generally look back to make sure the mirrors have folded in). I'm sure I can use the fob; but what I'm asking is from the car itself, how do you lock it?

Yes I realize this seems like a basic question and yes I'm too lazy to do the research when I have access to all of you!!!

 

[Tree03]

Question: How do you lock the car normally? I read above about the "double tap" on the key pad. I exclusively use the walk away feature myself (I generally look back to make sure the mirrors have folded in). I'm sure I can use the fob; but what I'm asking is from the car itself, how do you lock it?

Yes I realize this seems like a basic question and yes I'm too lazy to do the research when I have access to all of you!!!

Touch the padlock icon on the door, directly above the circular button that opens the door.

 

[DZign]

As some said, there are devices that extend the range of keyfobs.

There's also a list of numbers online to follow if you want to get in a car with a keypad code set, says it takes an average of 7 minutes to try all combinations and get into a car.. so if you have a keypad code set then disable it.

 

[ProximusAl]

There's also a list of numbers online to follow if you want to get in a car with a keypad code set, says it takes an average of 7 minutes to try all combinations and get into a car.. so if you have a keypad code set then disable it.

As far as Im aware you cannot disable the factory keypad code. I want to!!

 

[generaltso]

it takes an average of 7 minutes to try all combinations and get into a car.. so if you have a keypad code set then disable it.

It takes 7 minutes to try all combinations of a 5-digit code? Even when the car makes you wait some amount of time after entering an incorrect code repeatedly? I'd like to see that.

 

[benk016]

Just a data point, but I've had my phone connected to PAAK from everywhere in my house with my car in the garage. I have 2700sqft house and even in the room farthest from the garage it's connected before.

It typically won't connect that far, but it does on occasion.

 

[RW Journey]

When I picked up my car earlier this year I could work in the far side of my garage without the car detecting my phone but if I walked past it on the way to the house door it would. I have noticed that since the latest PaaK update it now detects me further away, i.e. on the far side of the garage. Which is about 25 feet away, so 30 feet isn't much of a stretch. Also, Bluetooth class 2, typical headsets, has a range of about 30 feet. While Class 1 Bluetooth has a range of 300 feet. I might investigate further.

 

[ARK]

I don't use walk away lock and can't comment on that.

I do use PaaK and typically park in the street in front of my house. I also work from home. The car is maybe 30 or so feet away from my home office - I've been working from home the entire time I've had my Mach-E.

It's very common, I'd say a daily or almost daily occurrence for the Mach-E to light up while I am inside my house, if I am moving my phone, because I guess the Mach-E thinks I am approaching.

I don't know how long the vehicle stays in it's 'ready to unlock' mode when it picks up the signal like this, I've never tried to go outside and unlock say 2, 5, 10 min after this happens and try to open it without the phone on me (but will now), but it is theoretically possible that you were close enough for someone to get lucky and unlock the vehicle while you were in the house, assuming your vehicle was previously locked.

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