Woken up by car alarm......yes its happened
- Thread starter Nazbit
- Start date
Dont have a clue, all I know is that there is one particular model of Ford CD changer that is being stolen in huge numbers, they are being smashed apart for one of the chips within it, and its then being soldered in to sky boxes to bypass the subsciption and get free sky.
Its happening all over the country.
At least two police forces have issued advice on the matter to owners of the unit.
Its happening all over the country.
At least two police forces have issued advice on the matter to owners of the unit.
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Doesnt it just telsa, I have 3 articles that I can show you,
I have a press release from merseyside police and one from West Yorkshire Police , the first issued in March, the second issued in January of this year.
Both of these press releases state that a lot of thieves are stealing the units to use with sky boxes and selling them for a lot of money and urge owners of the cd player to beware. One also says that sky is aware of the matter and is working to render the boxes useless.
(These are both print outs from the police earlier so I Can scan them in later, but I Cant show you them right now)
The third is a statement from Humberside Police who say that theives are targeting them under the false belief that they can be used to chip sky boxes. This one says that they are being taken in large numbers (Article says 70 in 22 days in hull alone) but that they cant actually be used after all and calls it a myth. click here to read
So thats 2 for and 1 against, the 2 press releases stating that this is true however, are newer than the one that calls it a myth.
Thats about all the info I got at the moment.
EDIT - The police lady who came to the house earlier did say that she was aware of it (without me mentioning it) and said that someone had been arrested in the bootle area of liverpool about 6 months ago who had a house full of sky recievers and she claims.....around 600 stolen cd changers of the same model as mine and she said it its out of control at the moment...........and to use her words "go to halfords and get something else, because they come back everytime, theres too much money to be made".
So as far fetched as it seems, I for one beleive it to be true.
I have a press release from merseyside police and one from West Yorkshire Police , the first issued in March, the second issued in January of this year.
Both of these press releases state that a lot of thieves are stealing the units to use with sky boxes and selling them for a lot of money and urge owners of the cd player to beware. One also says that sky is aware of the matter and is working to render the boxes useless.
(These are both print outs from the police earlier so I Can scan them in later, but I Cant show you them right now)
The third is a statement from Humberside Police who say that theives are targeting them under the false belief that they can be used to chip sky boxes. This one says that they are being taken in large numbers (Article says 70 in 22 days in hull alone) but that they cant actually be used after all and calls it a myth. click here to read
So thats 2 for and 1 against, the 2 press releases stating that this is true however, are newer than the one that calls it a myth.
Thats about all the info I got at the moment.
EDIT - The police lady who came to the house earlier did say that she was aware of it (without me mentioning it) and said that someone had been arrested in the bootle area of liverpool about 6 months ago who had a house full of sky recievers and she claims.....around 600 stolen cd changers of the same model as mine and she said it its out of control at the moment...........and to use her words "go to halfords and get something else, because they come back everytime, theres too much money to be made".
So as far fetched as it seems, I for one beleive it to be true.
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Well the guy has just been from the rac / auto windscreens and has just left.
Big thumbs up to him, very quick to replace it and he vacumed the glass out of the car afterwards, even gave the back seats, mats and boot the once over and they were totally uneffected, (it was the front passenger side)
So thats coming off my insurance but its on the glass policy so my no claims is safe from that.
Well its been a long day, im off to get a takeaway.
Big thumbs up to him, very quick to replace it and he vacumed the glass out of the car afterwards, even gave the back seats, mats and boot the once over and they were totally uneffected, (it was the front passenger side)
So thats coming off my insurance but its on the glass policy so my no claims is safe from that.
Well its been a long day, im off to get a takeaway.
Being an engineer, the free sky idea seems ludicrous, although you can never discount these things.. if it is true, I'd love to know how they are fooling sky..
On the surface, the bulk of any IC's in a CD Changer will be readily available from farnell/RS, and removing surface mount components is a right pain.. Of course there will no doubt be some custom ASIC's or FPGA's and even these are unlikely to contain anything of importance condidering SKY encrytpion is about as far away as you can get from a CD Changer..
The only scam free sky I've heard of is the telephone interception, making the box think that SKY's lines are busy/down and allowing PPV content for free.. but this is an external box..
On the surface, the bulk of any IC's in a CD Changer will be readily available from farnell/RS, and removing surface mount components is a right pain.. Of course there will no doubt be some custom ASIC's or FPGA's and even these are unlikely to contain anything of importance condidering SKY encrytpion is about as far away as you can get from a CD Changer..
The only scam free sky I've heard of is the telephone interception, making the box think that SKY's lines are busy/down and allowing PPV content for free.. but this is an external box..
Associate
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same 'scam' that happens by not plugging it in 
all it allows you to do is to hit your PPV credit maximum after which you can't order any more ppv.
i'm VERY sceptical that these are being used to hack sky as afaik NDS encryption has not been busted yet. A more plausible explanation is that they'll fit any ford from about '96 onwards (apart from the ka as that has a different facia) making for an easy upgrade if you only have a single disc/tape hu. Bloody annoying but what can you do
all it allows you to do is to hit your PPV credit maximum after which you can't order any more ppv.i'm VERY sceptical that these are being used to hack sky as afaik NDS encryption has not been busted yet. A more plausible explanation is that they'll fit any ford from about '96 onwards (apart from the ka as that has a different facia) making for an easy upgrade if you only have a single disc/tape hu. Bloody annoying but what can you do
Soldato
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Even if you're not planning on using it I'd still get the unit from your insurers (assuming that you don't have a huge excess or loose your NCB)
You can keep it in the house until you come to sell the car and then you'll have no problems with worrying about it being nicked again or of loosing trade-in value
You can keep it in the house until you come to sell the car and then you'll have no problems with worrying about it being nicked again or of loosing trade-in value
Soldato
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On the sky thing, maybe they can use the chip to bypass some sort of circuit in the box, someone my friend knew used to chip the ntl boxes and he done various things with resistors to bypass circuits in the box or something like that.
ajgoodfellow said:
I think thats exactly what Im going to do, will have to be carefull for the remainder of my policy though as one more claim and I loose my NCB.
wez130 said:
i've just today bought a mondeo with the 6006 cd changer in, think i'll set my cctv up again.
I would If I were you, I have been looking in to some after what happened yesterday, I think I will try and find a few cameras to throw together.