Automotive News Canada - September 2023 - 22

22
* SEPTEMBER 2023
Key fobs and
other tech
make crime
easier -
just look
at the numbers
By DAVID KENNEDY
T ORONTO BUREAU CHIEF
KEYLESS ENTRY, PUSH-BUTTON START
and other technologies that make it easier for
drivers to quickly get on the road are helping
propel auto thefts to staggering levels across
Canada, providing speedy getaways for a
tech-savvy generation of car thieves.
Thieves have traded their old brute-force
methods for sophisticated hardware or even
cellphone apps that exploit low-level radio signals
transmitted by key fobs, Detective Sgt.
Patrick Smyth of the York Regional Police
told Automotive News Canada. The technology
allows vehicles to be started and driven away
in as little as 15 seconds, he said.
Smyth, who heads the auto-theft unit for the
police department just north of Toronto, said
Canada's theft problem has reached a fever
pitch over the past four years as the pandemic
and global microchip shortage tightened vehicle
inventories.
" It's good old-fashioned supply and
demand, " he said. " Criminals do what criminals
do, and that is exploit a very lucrative
market. They steal the vehicles from here, and
they're using us as a source country and shipping
those vehicles worldwide to different markets. "
When
Smyth took over York's auto-theft
unit in 2019, the region was losing about 800
vehicles a year, he said. That figure had risen
to 3,200 by 2022, and he projects it will reach at
least 5,500 this year.
70,000 VEHICLES STOLEN IN 2022
The numbers are representative of the worsening
auto-theft problem in Canada.
More than 70,000 vehicles were stolen across
the country in 2022, according to a June report
from the Équité Association, an insurance
industry-backed not-for-profit. Every region
saw double-digit increases in thefts, though the
problem is most acute in Ontario and Quebec.
GONE IN 15 SEC
The number of stolen vehicles
in the two provinces was up 48.3
and 50 per cent, respectively, from
the year before, according to the
report.
Bryan Gast, vice-president of
the investigative-services division
at Équité, also pointed to the
exploitation of new technology as
one of the key drivers.
" The criminals and the technologies
on the criminal side
HOW CANADA
AVOIDED THE
'KIA CHALLENGE'
IN 2022, THE SO-CALLED
Kia challenge swept the United
States, leading to hundreds of
car thefts and several deaths.
The viral trend that began on
social media platform TikTok
took advantage of the lack of
immobilizers in certain models
of Kia and Hyundai vehicles
built throughout the 2010s.
Unlike in the United States,
where regulators did not make
immobilizers mandatory in
vehicles, Transport Canada
required manufacturers include
the anti-theft device beginning
in 2007. U.S. thieves and joyriders
were able to start and
steal vehicles with implements
as basic as a USB key but
faced far tougher resistance in
the more hardened Kias and
Hyundais in Canada.
have evolved, " he said.
Thieves taking advantage of OBD-II ports,
meant to be accessed by mechanics for diagnostic
purposes, are one common form of
attack that allows thieves
to reprogram keys, Gast
said. With the right tools
and know-how, thieves can
make off with vehicles in a
matter of minutes.
Relay thefts can occur
even more quickly - in as
little as 15 seconds - but
take two people working in
tandem, Smyth said.
For this approach, one
thief captures the radio signal
from a key fob, often by
standing next to the front
door of a house, near where
owners leave their keys. The
signal is then transmitted to
SEEKING SOLUTIONS
While automakers work to address the
security problems, solving them remains a
work in progress and today often requires
aftermarket solutions such as an OBD-II port
lock, a Faraday box to block key-fob radio signals
or an old-fashioned steering-wheel lock.
David Adams, president of the Global
Automakers of Canada, which represents
overseas automakers in the country, has been
communicating with law enforcement and
other industry stakeholders on auto thefts
over the past year. Filling in automakers on
how Canadian thieves are exploiting their
vehicles so they can find solutions is one of
the goals.
" All of our members, making their vehicles
more robust, more resilient, hardening them
to theft is an ongoing exercise, " he said.
Adams, as well as Gast and Smyth,
acknowledge that technology is just one
aspect of a wider theft problem that will
require fixes from automakers and law
enforcement and at Canadian ports, where
most stolen vehicles are transported for resale
overseas.
Technology has tamped down on auto
thefts before, Gast said, and with a regulatory
update the problem could again be alleviated.
He pointed to the success of immobilizer
requirements introduced in Canada in 2007.
In the years after the technology became mandatory
for vehicles sold in Canada, auto thefts
dropped by half, he said.
Immobilizers, which prevent vehicles from
being started without the proper key in the
ignition, also resulted in many police autotheft
units in Canada being disbanded because
thefts dropped dramatically.
But the new avenues of attack mean new
regulations are necessary, Gast said.
On Aug. 29, Équité called on Transport
Adams: R&D
trains the
workers the
industry will
need to make
the EV shift.
SUPPLIED
PHOTO
the second thief standing next to the vehicle
and used to open and quickly start the car.
Seeking theft reassurance through insurance
For one F&I provider,
the sale of theft-related
products in Ontario
jumped 125 per cent in
the first half of 2022
By DAVID KENNEDY
T ORONTO BUREAU CHIEF
SCRAMBLING FOR ANSWERS TO THE
steep increase in vehicle thefts across
Canada over the past five years, consumers
are turning to dealership finance and insurance
departments for solutions.
Uptake is booming for F&I products
that offer buyers a measure of protection
for either the vehicle itself or the victim's
financial situation, said Jeff Schulz, executive
vice-president of marketing at LGM
Financial Services, a Vancouver F&I provider.
" Having
products like this that help give
the consumer some protection give the
dealer an answer, " he said.
Through the first
half of the year, sales of
LGM's theft-related products
at dealerships were
up roughly 50 per cent
across Canada, Schulz
said. In particularly hardhit
Ontario, the sales
increase topped 125 per
cent, an LGM public relations
contact said.
In Canada's most populous
province, vehicle
thefts rose to 28,121 in
2022, up 48.3 per cent from
the year before, according
to a June report from
the Équité Association,
an insurance industry-backed
not-for-profit.
Ontario's growth in car
Schulz:
In light of
increased
theft, vehicle
replacement
insurance
is an
increasingly
important
offering.
SUPPLIED
PHOTO
thefts was topped only by Quebec, where
the number of stolen vehicles hit 14,480 in
2022, up 50 per cent from 2021.
Against this backdrop, the Canadian
Automobile Dealers Association (CADA)
has also noted the surge in activity in the
theft-related F&I segment.
" This wave of stolen-vehicle threats ...
is driving consumer anxiety about the car
they're driving, it's driving affordability
problems with insurance prices going up, "
said Huw Williams, CADA's public affairs
director. " And also with the vehicle shortage,
it's tough to even replace the vehicles. "
The federal government's unwillingness
to tackle the theft " epidemic " over the past
five years has forced auto stakeholders to
seek solutions on their own, Williams said.
" At the end of the day, it's the Canadian
public that pays, and it's the federal government
that's not doing their job, " he said.
$1 BILLION WORTH OF VEHICLES STOLEN
As consumers wait for answers, the costs
are adding up. According to Équité's June
report, insurers paid out more than $1 billion
for vehicle thefts in 2022.
These losses are passed on to drivers
through higher insurance premiums at the
same time they're turning to supplementary
anti-theft products to top off traditional
coverage.
Vehicle replacement insurance is one
increasingly important offering, Schulz
said. Traditional insurance payouts are
based on Canadian Black Book values, putting
theft victims at the mercy of vehicle
depreciation and inflation.
" You don't want to be out the differential
from what the coverage from insurance
will be and the new-car cost, " Schulz said.
Dealers are pitching the product to customers
far more often as theft becomes
more common, he said. On a $40,000 vehicle,
the coverage costs about $1,800 over the
financing term, he said.
" If your vehicle is stolen, you get an
allowance toward purchasing a new vehicle, "
Schulz said. " And depending on how
much the vehicle's valued, the amount goes
up. "
DECAL DEFENSE
To ward off prospective thieves and
increase the chances that stolen vehicles
are recovered, LGM also offers window-mounted
anti-theft decals accompanied
by unique, nonvisible identification codes.
The decals warn thieves the vehicle and its
components can be traced, while the hardto-detect,
UV-sensitive codes allow vehicles
or their parts to be identified, if found.
Costs to new-car buyers total about $500.
Automotive News Canada - September 2023

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