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GM is in the crosshairs of another class action lawsuit, this one alleging that some 2010 model-year and newer vehicles in its lineup – specifically the 2010 to 2023 Chevy Camaro – can have their keyfobs easily hacked, enabling theft of the vehicle without setting off its alarm.
The lawsuit against GM is currently in its earliest stages with a demand for a jury trial filed by Kazerouni Law Group, APC in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, on behalf of plaintiff Judy Cho.
The lawsuit alleges that smartphone-sized cloning devices are available on Amazon and elsewhere online which can be used to detect and copy the Keyless Entry and Keyless Ignition functions of a nearby Chevy Camaro keyfob. This is claimed to be possible because of a defect in the keyfobs, and a lack of protection against hacking, enabling the cloning devices to engage in “tricking the car into believing the genuine key fob is in close proximity.”
The lawsuit filing says the cloning device and its “intercepted signal can be utilized to unlock the car and start the ignition,” the whole process taking “a matter of 20-30 seconds.” The suit says other automakers, citing Range Rover and Jaguar, make keyfobs with wideband protection to prevent hacking, but alleges GM has not used such protection for the Camaro.
The suit quotes Los Angeles Police Department statements describing an abrupt rise in keyfob hacking thefts of Chevy Camaro muscle cars. The department says there has been a 1,185-percent jump in Camaro thefts from 2023 to 2024, rising from 7 thefts to 90.
An LAPD representative said it’s possible to warn Camaro owners about the keyfob vulnerability, but added “what we need is action higher up at the manufacturer level to make sure that it isn’t so easy to clone those fobs to begin with.”
The car of the plaintiff, Judy Cho, was alleged to have been stolen using this method. The Chevy Camaro in question has not yet been recovered and Cho is currently using rideshare, per the filing.
The class action suit claims GM failed to act on this longstanding problem or to adequately notify Chevy Camaro buyers of the risk. The suit demands monetary damages of an amount to be revealed during the trial to be paid to affected owners or lessees of stolen Camaros to be paid by The General, along with a national advertising campaign to warn of the danger and correction of the alleged keyfob defect.
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