Car remote jamming is the latest crime trend in South Africa. It is an easy attack that would-be thieves use to prevent drivers from locking their vehicles in parking lots.
While this relies on victims not noticing their car didn’t lock, in our busy society it is not hard to find a victim who is not concentrating while locking their car i.e. mothers with their hands full, a businessman talking on his phone or someone texting while locking their car…
Criminals don’t need illegal instruments or technical expertise to get started. All they need is a gate or garage remote with a sufficiently-powerful transmitter that operates on the same frequency as your car remote. One such frequency band for remote controls is 433MHz.
A gate remote that puts out a powerful signal on the same frequency as your car remote can easily “drown out” the message to lock or unlock the doors.
While the victim away from their vehicle. It is then easy pickings for the criminal to steal possessions left in the car or the car itself.
Watch this real CCTV footage of a car jamming incident to see how it works-
TIP:
To avoid becoming a target of car jamming, make it a habit to check your car is locked by pulling the door handle before you walk away, no matter how busy or distracted you are at the time.