Don’t make this huge mistake with your car key fob

Craig Johnson | January 10th, 2019

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Vehicle technology, including safety and security features, has never been more advanced than it is now and yet the ease with which a criminal can steal a car remains stunningly high. One big area of concern is key fobs.

With push-start activation standard in many newer vehicles, key fobs have become commonplace. But keyless entry may be partially behind some sobering new statistics when it comes to stolen vehicles.

The link between key fobs and car theft

Recent figures from the Federal Bureau of Investigation show that car thefts are on the rise again. The number of motor vehicle thefts reached 773,139 in 2017, continuing a nearly decade-long upward trend, the FBI report says.

A significant number of those crimes come with vehicle owners helping the thieves out: Many people leave their key fobs in their cars — and security experts have warned people about it for years.

Evidently, car owners are getting so complacent that many of them are just leaving their key fobs in their vehicles. Exact numbers on such thing are hard to come by because of…embarrassment?

“Since many people do not admit to leaving their car unlocked with the keys or FOB inside, the actual numbers of thefts with the keys left in vehicles may be considerably higher than the report indicates,” the National Insurance Crime Bureau said in a previous study.