How thieves are stealing your ride and what you can do about it

 

Car thieves have been around almost from the time that cars were invented about 130 years ago.

But now, it’s going to take much longer to replace your stolen new car, even if you have the money, because of disruption to the global supply chain.

That’s what happened to our family doctor who had his three-year-old Ford Ranger/Raptor stolen in November.

Police told him that footage of his trips in the Raptor showed that he had been tailed by an MPV and that his premium 4×4 was probably stolen through what’s known as a “relay attack” by a theft syndicate.

The doctor tried to book a replacement Raptor but found that he wouldn’t be able to get a new model until a year or two at the earliest.

Another weakness of new cars is connectivity. These new car models come with a SIM card that can transmit gigabit of data every minute; the new criminals are black hat hackers, joining the older cohort using frequency scanners. These black hackers can steal personal data, bank details, appointments and contacts database from your connected vehicle.

In the case of the Ford Raptor, anti-car theft specialist Alex Lye said that crime syndicates took advantage of the popularity of Ford Ranger and Ford Raptor and smuggled them to ready buyers in Myanmar and Thailand.

“The Ford 4×4 models and the premium Toyota MPVs including the Alphard and Vellfire, are trending on the list of the car-theft crime syndicates,” he said.

“It shows that the standard anti-theft system on these cars is too basic and not enough to protect them from theft syndicates in Malaysia.”

He said owners should install reputable anti-theft systems, from a high-quality fuel pump immobiliser cut-off or up to a premium system which is connected to a security GPS linked telecommand centre.”

The top two premium German car models can recognise unauthorised attempts to open the vehicle doors, boot lid or bonnet. Tow-away protection is activated as soon as the system detects a change in the vehicle’s position while it is locked.

Lye heads the Asian branch of the International Association of Auto Theft Investigators and has more than 30 years’ experience conducting post-mortems on recovered stolen vehicles to study the syndicates’ methods.

German-made cars are absent on the list of 10 most stolen private cars compiled by the Vehicle Theft Reduction Council which counts the police, Bank Negara, Customs, and the General Insurance Association of Malaysia among its members.

You can increase the protection of your new non-national car in a variety of ways.

• Install a premium anti-car theft system with 24/7 GPS connectivity to a telecommand security centre.
• Use an RFID pouch to lock and prevent thieves from accessing the car keys.
• Use a quality video surveillance system to defend the porch where the car is parked.

 -FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.