Cybercriminals sell step-by-step guide to stealing cars on the dark web for as little as £1.50

As police crack down hard on the dark web, British police have discovered that criminals are selling cheap keyless car theft guides online.

Car owners are at risk of online criminals selling guides on car theft, from how to steal keyless cars to hacking into Uber accounts, according to new research by British police. Worrying statistics show that there is a dark web of people willing to trade criminal knowledge for small amounts of money.

Research by Select Car Leasing found that auto criminals are using the dark web to teach followers how to steal cars and commit vehicle fraud.

In numerous marketplaces, investigators found guides to stealing keyless cars for as little as £1.53.

Keyless cars now account for 50% of all vehicle thefts in the UK, and criminals are constantly looking for new ways to break through the ever-advancing security.

Using relay technology, thieves can intercept the signal from a key fob and copy it to trick cars into unlocking and starting.

The Dark Web also offers tutorials showing how to use sites like Craigslist and Gumtree to scam drivers.

Another shocking finding from the research is that people claim they can hack into Uber's database and list someone as a fake driver - for as little as 77 pence.

Concerns about illegal drivers being able to access the app have surfaced in the past, most notably in London in 2019, where 14,000 trips were made by unauthorized drivers, including convicted felons.

The illegal list also includes in-car number plate scanning software for the same paltry price of 77 pence.

Once downloaded, the software can be used in another car by simply scanning the number plates of other cars to access the registered address of the owner.

The software gives car thieves access to any car of their choice as they can access the address, apply what they have learnt from the keyless car theft guide and then drive away with the vehicle.

In 2020, nearly 90,000 cars were stolen in the UK, many of which are believed to have been entered through keyless entry.

And last year, a Leicestershire car theft gang was convicted of stealing vehicles worth £2.4 million.

And by 2028, more than half of all new cars in the UK should be electric, increasing the likelihood of theft even more.

One seller also promised a tutorial on creating fake vehicle listings on used car websites, presumably to lure buyers into paying a deposit for a non-existent car and then disappearing with the money.

It costs just £38.21 - less than the cost of listing the average UK car on Auto Trader.

For the same price, car sales scammers can buy vehicle histories.

This would allow sellers to alter their car's odometer and repair history, perhaps masking high mileage readings, substandard repairs or even information that has been written off.

Fake licenses were found to be by far the most expensive car-related product on the dark web, with the exception of GPS trackers which cost £420.30 in cryptocurrency to purchase.

On average, the cost of a fake license is £241.64, which is expensive compared to a valid full UK license at £34, but the costs peddled by sellers on the dark web vary widely.

While some European forgeries cost thousands of dollars, many fakes sell for as little as a dollar - again, 77 pence in British currency.

Perhaps due to the standardized templates and cross-border compatibility of EU licenses, their forgery samples are among the most expensive, up to £1,700 in some cases.