From household products to office supplies to last-minute travel necessities, Amazon is a mecca for online shoppers. Items are delivered overnight by magical fairies, saving consumers time and hassle. However, there is a dark side to the giant online retailer, and while purchasing hacking devices may not be Amazon’s intended purpose, victims claim the company isn’t doing anything to put a stop to it.
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Miami architect Arseni Varabyu recently became one of the many affected by the rise of carjacking when he caught an unidentified man trying to hijack his SUV. Varabyu told local ABC affiliate WPLG that he was at work when the incident occurred.
“We’re walking the property, 30 seconds later the alarm starts going,” he recalled.
In surveillance footage obtained by WPLG, an unidentifiable man can be seen exiting the passenger door of a U-Haul truck and entering the driver’s side of Varabyu’s vehicle. Varabyu then comes into the frame and is seen running to the scene, but not before the thief and his accomplice driving the U-Haul got away.
According to Varabyu, they stole his credit card holder and a pair of sunglasses. Later that day, Varabyu received a notification from his bank that there was an attempted purchase with his stolen card.
WPLG reported that police are investigating the crime, though it currently looks to be the work of a type of electronic hacking device. As the Daily Mail explained in a previous article, "The hacking devices allow thieves to [reprogram] blank fob keys to start cars."
Varabyu said this could have been the case for him, warning that anyone could fall victim to a carjacking: “They believe it’s one of these devices because how do you get a car open? We’re just exposed to those devices that you can go and buy on Amazon."
According to the Council on Criminal Justice, carjacking was up 33.5 percent in the first half of 2023 compared to the previous year. To this point, in a 2018 experiment conducted by the Daily Mail, the outlet deployed hacking devices found on Amazon and eBay to see just how easy it is for the average person to steal a car. They were able to “break into” the car within two minutes.
“This is a very common form of attack. Amazon and eBay are unwittingly making the availability of the latest electronic attack tools freely available to anyone and on a next-day-delivery basis,” Peter Thompson from CanTrack Global, a stolen vehicle recovery service, told the Daily Mail. “Some of these tools are highly technical, and while they are legal to purchase, and legal to own, they are illegal to use.”
Best Life reached out to Amazon for comment on the hacking devices available for purchase on its site, and we will update this story with their response.
