GPS Jammers Help Thieves To Steal Cars And Valuable Loads

GPS jamming pocket devices used to block vehicle tracking

Thief gangs in the UK and Germany have begun to actively use GPS jammers to steal expensive cars and trucks with valuable loads. GPS jammers, small pocket-sized GPS devices operating on the same frequency as GPS satellites, allow criminals to confound car GPS tracking units by drowning out timing signals. In this case a in-vehicle tracking chip is unable to determine its current location and  can not report any position data to vehicle tracking centrals.

GPS jammers don’t need to put out strong interfering signals, as the the GPS satellites signals are extremely weak themselves. A thief only needs a jammer that can output of about 2 watts signal to “kill” any signal from the GPS satellites in area of a few meters.

What is a GPS jammer?

GPS jammer is an illegal device that is designed to block GPS signals from GPS satellites. GPS jammers are used to jam GPS navigation, data logging and tracking systems. GPS jammers could be used for vehicle, load, shipment, person, or every asset concerned.

Could GPS jamming be a new tech danger?

There are many fears that terrorists, too, could use GPS jammers in more powerful versions to disrupt air traffic, functionality of emergency networks and power stations.  A UK consortium is currently building the first GPS-jamming detection system, that is already tested in prototype stages and will be soon used at airports and other objects that rely on GPS satellites.