Car ‘jamming’ sweeps Europe

TRACKER, the UK’s leading stolen vehicle tracking and recovery systems specialist, warns car owners that GPS systems will not always help recover stolen vehicles. Today’s motor thief uses the latest technique, called ‘jamming’, which is commonplace across Europe, leading to rising numbers of stolen vehicles not being recovered. Celebrating its 15th anniversary, TRACKER provides motorists with the facts about ‘jamming’ and how to stop the criminals in their tracks.

Mark Walls of TRACKER explains: “Jamming is a technique used by thieves to block the satellite signal to the GPS receiver, or prevent GSM-based communication with the tracking device, making it impossible to trace a stolen vehicle. This is a major problem for car owners, who rely on GPS/GSM solutions to help them recover their car and may be unaware of the system’s vulnerability. Whilst GPS/GSM devices have their place in stolen vehicle recovery, there really shouldn’t be sole reliance on this technology”.

“Jammers are frighteningly easy to build using publicly available information and basic components and are cheap to buy from numerous sites on the internet. UK police routinely find GPS and GSM jammers in stolen vehicles. However, TRACKER Stolen Vehicle Recovery (SVR) systems are immune to GPS/GSM jammers and are much more resilient against this form of attack, offering motorists effective safeguards against theft.”

TRACKER Stolen Vehicle Recovery systems work like an electronic homing device using Very High Frequency (VHF) technology and currently recovers an average of £2million worth of stolen vehicles each month. The system places a covert transmitter on the owner’s vehicle, providing no visible evidence for the thief to suspect any security device. The signal is then tracked by any UK police force, directing them to the exact location of the stolen vehicle.

Paul Lambotte, Head of the ACPO Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service AVCIS adds: “We support vehicle locating devices, and it is clear that as technology moves on so does the ingenuity of the criminal. We have identified the continued development of devices to interfere with the equipment used and have undertaken to work with the industry and partners to devise innovative solutions. Using a number of technologies will force the thief to take increasingly more steps to facilitate the crime. The thief will be forced to take steps to tackle all of the vehicle locating technology that may be present, which in turn exposes them to additional risk. These risks increase the chance of detection.”

“AVCIS will continue to work with the industry, and TRACKER is one of our partnership organisations. These partnerships will reduce the likelihood of persons becoming the victim of crime and directly counter the attempts by criminals to defeat location devices. It is our firm belief that only through this integrated approach, police and industry working together, will the fight against organised crime be successful.”

Mark Walls concludes, “There is an over-reliance particularly on GPS as a security and recovery system. Although GPS has a part to play, current UK standards do not recognise the impact of its vulnerability, while more and more UK motorists fall victim to attack from jamming devices. We strongly advise consumers to choose a system that provides a more resilient solution and, better still, one that deliver multiple means of location and communication.”

“Celebrating our 15th anniversary, TRACKER has helped the police to catch over 1,700 suspected thieves and recovered over 17,000 stolen vehicles. This is a proven system that is far less susceptible to jamming devices and techniques, making it a powerful tool for car owners in the fight to protect their vehicle from thieves. By using our proven VHF technology motorists will drastically reduce their chances of falling prey to the growing gangs of car thieves, routinely using GPS/GSM jammers.”

For TRACKER Stolen Vehicle Recovery product and pricing information visit tracker.co.uk