Modern car theft.
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17-11-25 15:00
Hi Nick/Lily, I don't know how this was posted twice - could you erase one copy please. -
17-11-25 21:08
Much like the "Impossible to hack" Blockchain used in crypto currency transactions 😁
https://www.elliptic.co/blog/north-k...illion-in-2025 -
17-11-25 22:00
The article says that "The majority of the hacks in 2025 have been perpetrated through social engineering attacks, where hackers deceive or manipulate individuals in order to gain access to cryptocurrency. "
This is not a failure of computer security, but naivety and possibly greed on the part of the owners of the bitcoins. We have all had phone calls and emails which try to emulate our bank and whose intention is to empty the account.. I had a message yesterday offering a 15% return on my money if I invested with them. Yeah, Right. -
18-11-25 03:03My (small sample size) experience has been most people who show an interest in cryptocurrency tend to be financially naive.
Also often young!! Every generation wants to achieve something their parents haven’t had access to, to “show them how it’s done”
Any serious long-term investor I’ve known or known of wouldn’t touch cryptocurrency. The only exceptions being those who can actually influence the market valuations in their favour before dumping (ie Musk) -
18-11-25 12:19I can't help remembering that guy who sent his hard drive to the tip with his crypto wallet securely contained within it.
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18-11-25 15:46My car is not keyless, so I have a duff key hanging with all the other keys on the hooks. If someone wants to break in and take it, they're welcome to it.
It has been my experience though, that once a flaw in a particular car has been found, those cars seem to disappear en masse. Just last year, two local Mercs disappeared off the drives the same night. They were not keyless, and about two yrs old.
Reminds me of an old story from the 60s when an apprentice deliberately locked the keys of a RR in the boot on the production line. Someone showed him how to retrieve them, and he left. RRs started disappearing from his local area, until someone remembered him. He was caught but it couldn't be proved he was responsible for all of them. -
18-11-25 22:23Many years ago, I locked myself out of my Cortina, so I called the RAC. The patrol arrived and had a look, then asked me if I could get him a glass of water. By the time I got back, the door was open. I realised that he only wanted me out of the way so that I wouldn't see how easy it was.
Many years before that, I was driving a borrowed Mini in London and left it parked at the side of a road. I came back, used the key to start it and drove away. It was only when I reached for the cigarettes I kept on the shelf that passed for a glove compartment that I realised I was in the wrong car. I parked it back where it was, and no one was any the wiser. -
19-11-25 12:13I went to Brent X quite a few times to retrieve keys locked in cars, usually red Escorts. The one I won't forget was a call because the key wouldn't work the lock. I turned up, opened the car, and the key wouldn't work the ignition either. Then this charming lady wandered up and explained how she had been waiting at the car for quite a while for hubby. His was parked about six bays over.
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22-11-25 15:29Trunk monkey is the best answer 🤣
And if you're worried about your teenage daughter; there's a monkey for that as well.
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Community Manager28-11-25 10:34Here's an article from earlier this year around keeping your vehicle secure - some of it may seem obvious but there are some good reminders in there. When I dealt with theft claims back in the day, and I'm sure this hasn't changed significantly, there were lots of people whose car had been stolen when they hadn't taken care of the very basics, such as simply making sure it was locked, steering and brake locks etc.
Another tip I learned a long time ago was to park on my drive facing in to it, rather than reversing in - it makes it harder for thieves to drive away. -
Community Manager28-11-25 10:40And another article looking at how thieves "hack" your key, fob, car etc - this is from 2019 but likely still relevant - it's not necessarily a new trend - I was dealing with cases involving hacking devices back in 2010, probably even earlier. As technology improves so do the thieves - as I said in my earlier post, often the basics will work the best.
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28-11-25 13:19A bit of an aside.
A cousin used to do paintwork on cars, from full resprays to airbrushing. He was quite good, and as he improved, so did his customer base. He used to keep the cars overnight in his lockup at the end of his garden. Occasionally, he would have to park one in the entranceway to his lockup, and then one night, a car parked there was stolen. Around the same time, he started to get the cars keyed through his work. He went to his local Police Station to ask them to keep an eye out. A very surly Desk Sargeant told him they were too busy to worry about his lockup. He then fitted a length of flex to a plug, and wrapped the bared end around the door handle of a car there. He was woken around 2am by a hammering on the front door. It was the local beat bobby to tell him he had just been electrocuted making sure the car was secure. The surly Desk Sargeant had apparently asked the night shift to keep an eye out. My cousin was taken to the Police Station to have the riot act read to him, but no further action was taken.
That was the deciding factor whereby he bought a bigger house and garden and had a 4-car garage built. -
28-11-25 20:29
Not just crypto. Just see how many YouTube videos are telling you how to make $1,000,000 in a week trading stock options.
Of course they will sell you a course outlining how they did it for a few dollars as though with all that trading success you wonder why they would need a few extra bucks.
The same applies to casino beating schemes, import/export business etc.
And people still fall for it.😎 -
28-11-25 20:37@Rolebama We had a customer in Vegas with a really nice 57 Chevy Bel Air which he left at the shop to have a tail light bulb replaced. Took a few minutes and we called him telling it was all done. He then said he wouldn't be able to pick it up for about a week and insisted that we put it inside the shop each night. He was not happy that we said no, there's not room and it would be parked outside until he picked it up.
It was picked up a few hours later after he found out he wouldn't be getting free secure parking for a week. 😏 -
17-01-26 20:32And even with all the high tech anti theft devices...
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/n...truck-thieves/ -
08-02-26 12:35More from the BBC;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yp08kmk4eo
Keyless entry, was on idea that should have died at birth but in our rush for convenience the security aspect got thrown to one side, which is the norm these days.
