High-Tech RepoMan

PlayfullyClever writes "A new gizmo is upping the odds that even the most hard-knock customer will come up with the car payment. Hooked into the ignition system, the gadget comes in a handful of versions with one common conclusion: No pay, no start. It's worked wonders at Norfolk's Patriot Auto Sales, where nearly every car that drives off the lot is outfitted with a PayTeck Smart Box, a system that hands over a five-digit code in exchange for each payment. Come due date, the car won't crank until the customer punches the code into a palm-size keypad wired into the dash. I would think this "Smart Box" would get hacked way too easily, leaving car companies without their money."

Comments

Re:I wouldn't buy a car with this system

[alienw]

Uh, dude, this system is for white trash with such awful credit that they can't even get a loan from a loan shark car place. This is usually the people with multiple repossessions and bad debts. I don't think anyone who is not white trash needs to worry about this system.

I also don't think anyone will be bypassing it -- it's mainly there because it's cheaper than repoing the car, and people who buy cars from those places aren't smart enough to disable it (and probably can't afford to pay someone to do it for them).

Who would hack this?

[AK Marc]

Someone stupid enough that they buy a car they can't afford isn't going to be smart enough to hack the box. Those that do have a paycheck aren't going to mess that up hacking them for losers to stupid to hold a job.

Re:What the hell

[Trigulus]

fucking moron. yeah we all really believe that you are willing to go to jail or worse for killing a repo man. Most likely if you did anything at all it would be more big talk.. "I'm gonna sue you!", "Dont you know who I am!", "Get the fuck off my property".. etc etc.. but in the end you would still watch your vehicle get towed away.