New scam to steal your car

[LarryH57]

Please be aware and remain vigilant of the following technique currently being used by motor vehicle thieves in the London & South East area:

- The motorist parks their vehicle. On their return they find a note, purportedly from another motorist, saying they have hit the vehicle with a contact telephone number.

- The motorist calls the number. The other person is apologetic for the damage and gives the number of someone to repair the damage.

- The motorist calls the number and speaks to a person claiming to be a mechanic. The motorist arranges an appointment for the person to come and look at the damage.

- The ‘mechanic’ looks inside the main cab of the vehicle to ‘get the paint colour’ and leaves saying he will return to fix the damage when he has the correct paint.

In fact he has just paired a blank key with the vehicles OBD socket.

- The vehicle is stolen overnight.

Obviously this is more likely to affect gullible car owners but it might be useful to warn your family.

[Redcap]

It's been going on for a while now. The Mirror has an article written by Quentin Wilson regarding it:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/authors/quentin-wilson/car-thieves-make-a-killing-from-hi-tech-1142902

[Julf]

In fact he has just paired a blank key with the vehicles OBD socket.

Boy is he going to be busy looking for the OBD socket in my landies...

[Dobbs]

Boy is he going to be busy looking for the OBD socket in my landies...

Or the 'fake' one in my other car!!