Key Fob question

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ham_sandwich

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Back ground: A friend of mine had his 2020 1500 stolen not long ago. It was parked in his driveway and someone had a device that could read the RF from his key fob. This device allowed him to open the doors and start the truck within 19 seconds and drive off. My friends ring camera caught all of it. After he spoke with the police and his insurance co., they both said it was a professional car theft ring that targets these newer vehicles with the key fob entry/remote start/push button start because the key fob is constantly sending out a signal and they can capture this signal. My question is - is there a way to turn off this signal on the key fob or do I need to purchase a faraday cage (a pouch that blocks the RF signal) to store the key fob in?
 

JayLeonard

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I bought a faraday box that came with 2 pouches. Wife uses one pouch to hold credit cards in her purse. I throw my fob in the box when I’m at home.
Wish I knew if that really works.
 

crash68

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Usually what they use is a range extender, it searches for the fob signal and extends the signal. If you really want to pretty much stop a range extender from finding your fobs, get yourself an all metal box and ground it to a water pipe store the fobs in there. Make sure the door of the box is grounded also.
Just storing your keys in a metal box will cause enough grief for the thieves they'll move on to an easier target.
 

LugsLeadOut84

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I wasn't aware and don't think (would love a definitive answer) that the fob constantly sends out a signal.
I do know there are "sophisticated" thieves who use a device to capture the fob's signal, but my understanding is it's captured when the fob is used - not just by being near it. The capture device has to be within fob-range. It's typically done on urban city streets where it's common to unlock your car while a lot of people are walking or milling around.
The Faraday cage works and is more commonly used for phones because they ARE constantly generating signals (Bluetooth, NFC, etc.). It also works for RFID credit cards because the chips are activated when brought in contact with a small electromagnetic field. There are sniffers used to activate RFID credit cards to steal information. The 4 curved-line symbol indicates an RFID card.
 

Wirerat

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I wasn't aware and don't think (would love a definitive answer) that the fob constantly sends out a signal.
I do know there are "sophisticated" thieves who use a device to capture the fob's signal, but my understanding is it's captured when the fob is used - not just by being near it. The capture device has to be within fob-range. It's typically done on urban city streets where it's common to unlock your car while a lot of people are walking or milling around.
The Faraday cage works and is more commonly used for phones because they ARE constantly generating signals (Bluetooth, NFC, etc.). It also works for RFID
A key fob for a vehicle with push button start /keyless entry is always transmitting.

It's a short range transmitter with rfid inside.

Explained here

Plenty of YouTube explainations showing how the thiefs do it and how Faraday bag can help stop the fob from emitting.
 
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