A NY Times columnist had his car stolen by kids who were possibly using a repeater to rebroadcast his key fob:
Keyless entry systems typically only communicate with their remote fobs over the distance of a few feet, but he thinks that the gadget is capable of extending this range, fooling the car into thinking that the remote is within range even though it was actually in Bilton's House, about 50 feet away. He arrived at this theory after he consulted with Boris Danev, a Swiss-based security expert:
"It's a bit like a loudspeaker, so when you say hello over it, people who are 100 meters away can hear the word, 'hello,'" Mr. Danev said. "You can buy these devices anywhere for under $100." He said some of the lower-range devices cost as little as $17 and can be bought online on sites like eBay, Amazon and Craigslist.
Sounds creative and easy. Maybe those clubs aren't so silly after all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2015, @07:17PM
If the range of the fob is a few feet, wouldn't the repeater have to be within a few feet of the fob?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2015, @07:26PM
Not if the repeater has a more powerful transmitter to talk to the fob and a more a sensitive receiver to pick up the fob's response.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kaszz on Saturday April 18 2015, @12:52AM
Kind of like Blue-sniping ;)