Monday, April 15th, was supposed to be a normal day for the employees of car-sharing service Car2Go in Chicago. During the day, there was an increase in demand for luxury Mercedes-Benz cars. Ownership times for rental vehicles were significantly higher than the average for Car2Go trips, and many vehicles were not returned at all. At the same time, dozens of cars belonging to the service went beyond the company's coverage area.
Representatives of the company went to pick up the vehicles and reported that the vehicles were simply stolen. Despite the fact that the Car2Go service can remotely lock your own cars, the confusion at the time of the incident helped the attackers take possession of the vehicles. Representatives of the car sharing service stated that they had never encountered such large-scale cases of fraud before.
After unsuccessful attempts to regain control of the cars, service representatives turned to the Chicago police for help. Moreover, a few days later the Car2Go service was forced to stop providing services in the city because difficulties arose with identifying clients. In total, the company lost about 75 cars, many of which were eventually returned.
It is unknown how exactly the attackers managed to take possession of the cars. According to some reports, most of the vehicles were rented through a mobile application in a fraudulent manner. Police said many of the stolen vehicles were "used to commit crimes." The police still have to figure out the current situation. It is known that 16 people were detained on suspicion of car theft.
Although the incident in question was unique in the short history of carsharing, it is a clear example of the risks that companies operating in the field of sharing vehicles connected to the Internet may face.
Police reports indicate that the stolen cars, when recovered, still had working GPS trackers, their own license plates, and many of them had Car2Go stickers visible on them. All this has greatly simplified the search for stolen cars.
Source: 3dnews.ru