How to Prevent Keyless Car Theft: 4 Tips for Modern Vehicles

Key­less car theft is on the rise, and many car own­ers are unaware of how eas­i­ly their vehi­cles can be stolen, even with­out some­one ever touch­ing their key fob. Thieves are using high-tech tools to exploit the con­ve­nience of key­less entry sys­tems, mak­ing it sim­ple for them to unlock and dri­ve off with a vehi­cle in a mat­ter of min­utes.

One com­mon method involves using a sig­nal ampli­fi­er, which can pick up and relay the sig­nal from a key fob inside a home, trick­ing the car into think­ing the key is near­by and unlock­ing the doors. This allows the thief to dri­ve away with­out ever need­ing to phys­i­cal­ly touch the key.

This type of theft is par­tic­u­lar­ly alarm­ing for own­ers of high-end or lux­u­ry vehi­cles, as thieves can bypass tra­di­tion­al secu­ri­ty mea­sures with rel­a­tive ease. Once inside the car, crim­i­nals can also use more advanced equip­ment to over­ride the igni­tion sys­tem, start­ing the engine with­out the prop­er key. The stealthy nature of key­less car theft means it can hap­pen quick­ly, even in pub­lic places, with­out draw­ing atten­tion.

As this trend grows, car own­ers must be aware of the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties of key­less entry sys­tems and take steps to bet­ter secure their vehi­cles against this increas­ing­ly sophis­ti­cat­ed crime.

Essential Vehicle Security Tips for Car Theft Protection

Pro­tect­ing your vehi­cle from theft starts with under­stand­ing its vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties and tak­ing proac­tive steps to safe­guard it. While mod­ern vehi­cles come with a vari­ety of secu­ri­ty fea­tures, there are addi­tion­al mea­sures you can take to ensure your car remains secure at all times.

The fol­low­ing are some of the best vehi­cle secu­ri­ty tips that you can count on for car theft pro­tec­tion:

1. Use a Faraday bag or box for your key fob

One of the best ways to pro­tect your vehi­cle from key­less theft is to store your key fob in a Fara­day bag or box.

These items are specif­i­cal­ly designed to block the wire­less sig­nal emit­ted by your key fob, pre­vent­ing thieves from ampli­fy­ing the sig­nal and trick­ing your car into unlock­ing. When you are not using your key fob, always ensure it is placed inside the Fara­day bag, espe­cial­ly when it is in your purse or on a table in a pub­lic place.

If you do not have a Fara­day bag, you can also use a met­al con­tain­er to block the sig­nal. This sim­ple yet effec­tive set­up ensures your car’s secu­ri­ty, as it pre­vents unwant­ed access while you are not in con­trol of the key fob’s sig­nal.

With the rise in key­less entry thefts, this low-cost, easy-to-use solu­tion pro­vides peace of mind when your car is parked at home, at work, or while you are trav­el­ling.

2. Install a steering wheel lock

A vis­i­ble deter­rent, such as a steer­ing wheel lock, can be one of the most effec­tive and bud­get-friend­ly ways to pre­vent key­less car theft.

While it may not pre­vent thieves from inter­cept­ing the key fob sig­nal, it adds a lay­er of phys­i­cal secu­ri­ty that is hard to ignore. These locks make it incred­i­bly dif­fi­cult for thieves to steal the car, which can frus­trate and delay them, mak­ing your vehi­cle a less appeal­ing tar­get.

Thieves tend to avoid cars that are equipped with vis­i­ble anti-theft devices, as they add time and risk to their job. Using a steer­ing wheel lock makes your car stand out as a more time-con­sum­ing tar­get than oth­ers with­out such vis­i­ble deter­rents. The lock is easy to use, portable, and can be con­ve­nient­ly stored in your car when not in use, pro­vid­ing extra pro­tec­tion against car theft when parked at home or in unfa­mil­iar places.

3. Park in well-lit and high-traffic areas

Where you choose to park your vehi­cle plays a sig­nif­i­cant role in pre­vent­ing key­less car theft. Park­ing your vehi­cle in a well-lit, high-traf­fic area great­ly min­i­mizes the chances of a thief suc­cess­ful­ly tar­get­ing your car.

Crim­i­nals tend to tar­get vehi­cles that are parked in dark, seclud­ed spots, where they can work undis­turbed. By park­ing your car in busy, vis­i­ble areas, you make it much hard­er for thieves to remain unno­ticed.

A good vehi­cle secu­ri­ty tip is to park near entrances, secu­ri­ty cam­eras, or areas with high foot traf­fic. If you park in a garage, ensure that it is well-lit and equipped with prop­er secu­ri­ty mea­sures.

Addi­tion­al­ly, it may be a good idea to install brighter out­door lights or motion-acti­vat­ed lights out­side your home, so that when your car is parked in the dri­ve­way, it is not vul­ner­a­ble to theft.

Thieves are less like­ly to attempt a break-in if they know they could be eas­i­ly spot­ted. Thus, tak­ing sim­ple steps to park in safer loca­tions sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduces your risk of becom­ing a vic­tim of key­less theft.

4. Turn off keyless entry when not in use

Many mod­ern vehi­cles offer the option to dis­able the key­less entry sys­tem when it is not need­ed, and doing so can be an effec­tive way to safe­guard your car from poten­tial theft.

By turn­ing off the key­less entry sys­tem, you ensure that your car will not respond to the sig­nal from your key fob, reduc­ing the chances of some­one using sig­nal ampli­fi­ca­tion to unlock your vehi­cle.

Although it may be slight­ly incon­ve­nient to dis­able the sys­tem every time you leave your car, this addi­tion­al pre­cau­tion can make a big dif­fer­ence, espe­cial­ly in areas with high crime rates.

Some cars also allow you to acti­vate a “sleep” mode for the key fob, which min­i­mizes its expo­sure to poten­tial theft sig­nals. Tak­ing these steps, espe­cial­ly when leav­ing your car in a pub­lic area or for extend­ed peri­ods, can sig­nif­i­cant­ly enhance the secu­ri­ty of your vehi­cle.

How Protection Plus Can Help With Keyless Car Theft Prevention

If you are wor­ried about the safe­ty of your vehi­cle and would like to take steps toward key­less car theft pre­ven­tion, Pro­tec­tion Plus can cer­tain­ly help. We are experts in secu­ri­ty solu­tions of all kinds, and can pro­vide you with var­i­ous ways to safe­guard vehi­cles parked at your home or busi­ness.

While we do not specif­i­cal­ly sup­ply secu­ri­ty sys­tems for vehi­cles, we offer an exten­sive list of var­i­ous home and busi­ness secu­ri­ty devices and sys­tems that can pro­vide pro­tec­tion that extends to your vehi­cle, as long as it is on your prop­er­ty.

For instance, we offer cut­ting-edge secu­ri­ty cam­eras and proac­tive video mon­i­tor­ing sys­tems that not only allow you to keep an eye on your vehi­cles and the rest of your prop­er­ty at all times but also help deter crim­i­nals from attempt­ing theft in the first place.

When it comes to car theft pro­tec­tion, just as with most secu­ri­ty approach­es, the more com­pre­hen­sive your secu­ri­ty set­up is, the bet­ter your pro­tec­tion will be, and that is what we can help you estab­lish.

All the secu­ri­ty solu­tions we offer incor­po­rate inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­o­gy and are man­u­fac­tured by indus­try-lead­ing com­pa­nies. You can rest assured that your prop­er­ty will be secure­ly locked and effec­tive­ly guard­ed at all times.

Addi­tion­al­ly, our team of secu­ri­ty experts would be hap­py to address any spe­cif­ic secu­ri­ty con­cerns to ensure that the secu­ri­ty mea­sures you choose are tai­lored to meet your unique require­ments.

For more infor­ma­tion about how we can assist you with key­less car theft pre­ven­tion, or to learn more about the spe­cif­ic types of home and busi­ness secu­ri­ty mea­sures we offer, please call Pro­tec­tion Plus Secu­ri­ty Solu­tions at 1–855-365‑7587 or con­tact us here.