Shropshire police respond to 'tracking key fobs' hoax
※ Download: Free key holders at petrol stations
Especially since both of those crimes are overwhelmingly crimes of opportunity, engaged in as perpetrators spot or stumble across their chances, rather than crimes typically pursued through the elaborate staking out and tracking of targets. Warning someone to watch out for a threat that does not exist serves no good purpose. So interesting was this possible tracking device that the police got involved with a special unit focused on high tech crime.
Caltex branded key rings were issued to our diesel customers as part of this promotion. He broke the key holder open, and inside was a small tracker working with sun power. Such email forwards needlessly clutter inboxes and waste bandwidth.
Shropshire police respond to 'tracking key fobs' hoax - Alert everyone in your clique, including Drivers, Domestic staff etc Subject: FW: PICS OF KEY HOLDERS BEING DISTRIBUTED DO NOT ACCEPT PEOPLE!!! However, the key rings were totally innocuous and certainly did not contain any sort of tracking device.
Comment: Please be advised that there are people handing out keyrings at intersections and stop streets... These keyrings have tracking devices in them.... Kindly refuse them as you would be able to be followed if you accept it.... Please pass this on.... He put petrol in his car and the petrol attendant gave him a key holder - Free! Back at work he noticed something funny - a copper plate standing out. It had a sticker on the key holder, he pulled it off. With the key ring being transparent, he noticed a type of SIM card inside. He opened the key holder just to find a miniature transmitter which works with sun power. How does knowing where random strangers live make it any easier to steal their cars or break into their homes? Dave 26 August 2008 06:10 PM RFID tags are so small because they have no internal power source - the power is induced by an EM field at the base station. While GPS devices can be very small and operate on very low power, to transmit their location they need to send a signal a significant distance - i. The smallest GPS tracking devices today are the size of small cell phones since that's exactly what they are and at best can send a location fix every hour for the better part of a day. Such a device would not be confused with a small non-electronic device. Lee Orac 28 August 2008 06:53 PM I thought this bit was odd. Don't most people carry their keys in their pockets or purse? I always carry mine on top of my head. That way, they reach that magical temperature of 3000 degrees F, or the exact same temperature that the inside of my car reaches. This helps the keys fit the ignition perfectly. How does knowing where random strangers live make it any easier to steal their cars or break into their homes? The only possible advantage I could possibly come up with is, you follow the victim home, then track them to see when they are no longer at home. That way you have a nice empty house to break into. That way you have a nice empty house to break into. That only works if the crooks somehow know everyone they're tagging lives alone. The idea of tagging marks with an expensive device is a very high risk activity, with little reward that is only valuable if your successful once which may never happen. After that, the device are no longer worth it unless you want to burglarize a place multiple times which precludes the necessity of tracking and is only riskier still. KKHB 28 August 2008 10:15 PM I don't get what the utility of this scheme is supposed to be. How does knowing where random strangers live make it any easier to steal their cars or break into their homes? That's what I thought too. The whole thing is preposterous for so many reasons, but could it be being implied maybe that the keyrings are being handed out only to select few, as opposed to random victims? Still ridiculous, but just a thought to make the story slightly more believable. Chloe 28 August 2008 10:18 PM Why isn't there a huge market for this? I wonder how accurate these things would be in terms of location. I know that the movies portray tracking devices with pin-point accuracy, but I wonder what the error range would be for finding said keychain. At least standard keyfinders made a noise o you can track the sound, but for a device as small as convience would allow, how accurate are they? How big of an area would you still have comb throgh?
They sometimes parade themselves as sales promoters giving out free key chains. So it is being advised not to accept any such key chains. Quote: Information reaching Police formation indicates that: There is a syndicate of criminals selling beautiful key holders at Petrol Stations. After this e-mail he stripped it and found it equipped with solar panel, antenna the works. Such assumptions are really ludicrous. When he arrived at work, he noticed something strange about the key holder. The electronics housed inside the key ring only operated a flasher device and have no tracking capabilities. Best thing about this new service is that you are never placed on hold and get to talk to real repairmen in the US. The message warns that the free key chain is actually a detector that can be used to follow you home. It had a sticker on the key holder, he pulled it off. Like the 2008 version, the later version included photographs of a dismantled key holder supposedly showing the tracking device.
