Car tracking workers allegedly helping thieves in South Africa to steal vehicles in seconds
ChangeCars owner and founder Michael Pashut warned that criminals could be working with staff at vehicle tracking companies to track and steal target cars in South Africa.
The allegations stem from a January 2025 interview Pashut conducted with an anonymous insider, dubbed Mr X, who claimed that workers in the vehicle tracking industry were complicit in these crimes.
Speaking to Cape Talk, Pashut cited the example of high-risk vehicles being stolen from parking lots as a cause for concern.
“An individual pulls up in a Toyota Hilux, a Toyota Fortuner, and I used those examples as they are high-risk, well-stolen vehicles,” he said.
“The individual pulls up, parks, gets out of the car, and two minutes later another vehicle pulls up, individuals get out, they don’t break any windows, they simply walk up to the car and get in.”
He said this suggested that the car thieves had access to a key fob in these cases, as well as information which enabled them to track and unlock the car and drive off in under a minute.
Pashut said that Mr X made serious allegations about an issue that was not specific to one company, but was an industry-wide challenge.
Mr X claimed that people working for tracking companies were approached by criminal syndicates that instructed them to copy spare key codes for vehicles in which they installed trackers.
“You’ve got access to a spare key, it is that spare key that is coded with the same data that the brand new vehicle’s key has got. It can also be a second-hand vehicle,” Pashut said.
“That key is made available to, sadly, the wrong individuals, and it is that key that is used when the time comes to track the vehicle.”
In the original interview with Mr X, Pashut asked whether he believed that installing a tracker in a vehicle increased that vehicle’s risk of theft.
“I have two answers for that. I’d say yes and no. The whole purpose of having a tracking device is for monitoring purposes and recovery,” Mr X said.
“But, unfortunately, there is a darker secret to it. It affects the industry as a whole. It’s more or less all the companies that are involved.”
MyBroadband asked Cartrack, Netstar, and Tracker whether they were aware of such cases, but they had not responded to our queries by the time of publication.
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