[Jonny Reload]

Now this is all apart of me being curious about how to Steal Cars in the 2070's, but after you get done having databases changed or licenses and etc' forged and the Car's node re-done so it would either Spoof a Fake ID or literally have a registered ID, how do you get rid of the damn Stealth tags?

A Tag Eraser has to come within 1 Centimeter of it's target in order to be erased but can be read by law enforcement agencies up to 40 meters away. Now if the Car Manufacturer were to have half a brain, they'd put the Chips in ridiculously inaccessible places (Such as crammed all the way up in between wiring or bolts and metal brackets of the car engine) Now the only way I can remote'ly figure of safely and knowingly purging your stolen loot of all Stealth RFID tags would be to load it into a truck with Radio Frequency Blocking Paint lining the inside, transport it to a Mage you pay to use Surge on the Car.... But this seems a little over kill just to steal a car, are there any other methods of Car Theft that'll let you be able to fence the merchandise without it being hot?

[Kontact]

EMP works.

Should fry the RFID, but not any optical-based electronics like the car's node.

EMP grenades are thankfully hard to come by, but 500 bux for a stolen car is a pretty good deal imo.

[Jonny Reload]

EMP works.

Should fry the RFID, but not any optical-based electronics like the car's node.

EMP grenades are thankfully hard to come by, but 500 bux for a stolen car is a pretty good deal imo.

Wow I've gone years never even touching RFID rules until now...... Now I see the usefulness of EMP Grenades in an Optical World  LOL Thanks for the find!

[Mirikon]

Stealth tags are not hardened against tag erasers. Only security tags are like that.

[Jonny Reload]

Stealth tags are not hardened against tag erasers. Only security tags are like that.

Read up above about "Hard to reach places" and "1 centimeter distance to use a RFID tag eraser"

[Mirikon]

Yes, but even with a decent Scan program, you can find all hidden nodes (including stealth tags) in short order. If it is on the inside of your car's engine block, you have two options. 1) Get a new car. 2) Get a mechanic to do a 'tune-up' while you happen to be nearby, and zap it.

The reason Stealth tags are a problem is because you are generally too busy not getting shot to properly scan for them. If you have the resources, investing in an EM shielded facility and powerful jammers makes it a lot easier to take the time to scan for stealth tags while you're waiting to make a drop.

[CitizenJoe]

Step 1: Steal a car.
Step 2: Scan it for the RFID code.
Step 3: Report car stolen, but keep it hidden some place or even trash it.
Step 4: Make multiple copies of the RFID tags.
Step 5: Find a car you want, slip the RFID tag under the bumper
Step 6: Wait for police to show up.
Step 7: Pose as tow truck operator and tow the car to the police impound (i.e. where ever you're stealing it to).

[acolyte99]

How do you scan for a stealth RFID?

Quote from SR4A page 329:

Stealth tags are encoded to remain silent and only
respond to transmissions with the proper passcodes. They cannot be
located with a commlink or bug scanner (unless the codes are known).
They typically use special frequencies and other tricks to avoid detec-
tion.

Most of the time it doesn't send ("remain silent"), if it sends it does so on "special frequencies" and it explicitly says, that comlinks and bug scanners (I will interpret this as meaning radio signal scanner, since I don't know of any bug scanner in the Gear section) cannot locate it.
You can't scan something that doesn't send and if it does send, it says you can't locate it.

Let's assume one can at least notice, that something was sending even if you can't say from where exactly it does so.
Then you could work with the following procedure:

1. Put the stolen vehicle in a faraday cage.
2. Use EMP Grenades or fire with the HERF-gun (after defining with your GM how the beam of the gun is formed) until you think you had the whole vehicle covered.
3. Scan for signals for a long time like day or two to see if something is sending from the vehicle
4. If there is anything left sending in the vehicle, repeat steps 2. and 3.

After this you can be reasonably sure to have catched all stealth chips that have a mean sending interval of a day or two. Bad luck if the owner or the corp which build the vehicle has put into it a stealth chip which only sends a signal once a week.

The only other method would be to complete dismantle the vehicle, throw away everything which cannot be divided into smaller parts than one centimeter thickness, let a drone go over it centimeter by centimeter with a tag eraser and put it together again (after buying the parts like an engine that cannot be disassemble into small enough parts)

That would be RAW. Don't know if riggers will like it.

[Jonny Reload]

Yes, but even with a decent Scan program, you can find all hidden nodes (including stealth tags) in short order. If it is on the inside of your car's engine block, you have two options. 1) Get a new car. 2) Get a mechanic to do a 'tune-up' while you happen to be nearby, and zap it.

The reason Stealth tags are a problem is because you are generally too busy not getting shot to properly scan for them. If you have the resources, investing in an EM shielded facility and powerful jammers makes it a lot easier to take the time to scan for stealth tags while you're waiting to make a drop.

Sorry dude, that's not how Stealth Tags work. They use a "Marco Pollo" System of responding to Law Enforcement. They aren't set on Stealth Mode, they are set on Receive Only Mode. They receive the right passcode, then they start broadcasting blip or whatever signifying that their there, which states in Arsenal you need to do a lot of homework and breaking into the car manufacturers database for information on the car (Which I'm assuming would also be the codes for the Stealth Tags.)

[CanRay]

Transport Box Trailer with a faraday cage built into it.  Knight Rider up into the trailer and call it a day.

[Zilfer]

Transport Box Trailer with a faraday cage built into it.  Knight Rider up into the trailer and call it a day.

Then sell it to the guys who know how to get rid of the tags, or can sell it off to someone who doesn't care or who has the guts to use it. Maybe ship it to japan! xD

[Jonny Reload]

Transport Box Trailer with a faraday cage built into it.  Knight Rider up into the trailer and call it a day.

Then sell it to the guys who know how to get rid of the tags, or can sell it off to someone who doesn't care or who has the guts to use it. Maybe ship it to japan! xD

The whole point of the post was to be the middle man as well as the thief and seller of the stolen car.
Kind of already answered up above but hey, if you wanna pay freight charges to move your stolen goods to Japan and take a cut out of your pay, be my guest 

(Clearly I've been watching too much Gone in 60 Seconds  )

[UmaroVI]

I notice nobody has commented on why it works like this. Cars cost a lot. In fact, cars are expensive relative to paying shadowrunners. Shadowrunners could, without magical undetectable stealth RFID tags, easily steal cars and fence them for far, far more money than they make shadowrunning. We're not talking like a bit more, we're talking huge amounts more. So, magical stealth RFID tags that make it impossible to keep stolen cars for longer than "long enough to use it in this mission before we ditch it."

[JustADude]

I notice nobody has commented on why it works like this. Cars cost a lot. In fact, cars are expensive relative to paying shadowrunners. Shadowrunners could, without magical undetectable stealth RFID tags, easily steal cars and fence them for far, far more money than they make shadowrunning. We're not talking like a bit more, we're talking huge amounts more. So, magical stealth RFID tags that make it impossible to keep stolen cars for longer than "long enough to use it in this mission before we ditch it."

So, in other words, it's a "balance" thing...  Bleh.

Really, though, using the "10% rule" from Missions (you can get 10% of the item's list price if you sell it hot), that's going to be between 1,000¥ and 5,000¥ per car, assuming you can find buyers for them. Not really that profitable, since there's only so many you can steal before the chop-shops are flooded and they start low balling you on the price.

Organlegging, on the other hand, is even more profitable (especially if you get lucky and grab a guy with some 'ware), answers that messy question of what to do with the bodies after a run, and will never be flooded as long as there are Ghouls in town.

The "lesson" here? Don't steal cars, kill people and sell their bodies to flesh-eating monsters.

[UmaroVI]

Even at 10%? Steal a limo, sell it for 12000Y. RFID stealth tags are also all that's really preventing runners from stealing stuff like a cargo helicopter (10% sells for 50000Y), sports car (8500Y), etc. And if we're comparing to missions - they typically pay 10000 per runner. Let's see, take on bug spirits for 10000Y? Or steal one limo for 12000Y?

I would describe it as less "a balance thing" and more "a sloppy patch on the festering wound that is the poorly thought out economy." But hey.