Porch Thief Hacked-in And Erased Doorbell Video Of The Crime!!

At 1:37 pm yesterday, I have a video showing a fedex package being delivered to my porch. At 1:47 pm I have a motion activated video, but it is completly black, with no sound. Twenty minutes later, I have another motion activated video of me on the porch getting my mail, and there is no box on the porch. It looks like somehow the porch thief was able to hack into the Ring Doorbel and erase the video of them stealing the box. They didnt delete the video, they just erased it. They did not cover the camera up, or I would have still been able to hear background noises, but the video is totally silent, and solid black. Has anybody else had this happen?

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As an update, I called customer service. They looked into it and verified what I described above, then after about 20 minutes on hold, they came back and said that what they were seeing was impossible so they blew me off.

My WiFi has a complex password and wpa2 authentication with a full firewall, so there is not much more I can do from this end.

At this point, I am unable to trust Ring for anything dealing with security.

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I have been looking more on the internet and talking to the police. It looks like what likely happened is that the porch thieves had a transmitter that scrambled the WiFi signal. The Ring devices operate over your WiFi network, and only work when your WiFi is working. Since the doorbell uploads the video in real time to the internet, if your wifi is compromised during the robbery, the Ring devices cannot communicate with you and they cant properly upload the video. You are basically left with nada during the thieves visit. No motion notification, and no video. When they approach your house, the wifi gets scrambled and Ring goes down, when they leave, your WiFi and Ring devices go back to normal. The whole process probably lasts 2 minutes or less.

The transmitter can be anything from a modified baby monitor, to a walkie talkie that has been adjusted to broadcast on the 2.4 and 5 Ghz frequencies. This WiFi scrambling technique will effect all security devices that operate on your WiFi network, not just Ring.

It is such a simple way of defeating WiFi security devices. They dont need to hack in to the Ring device, or your WiFi, or your account. They just need to transmitt a garbage signal near your house in the same frequency as your WiFi, and everything goes down. I would say its beautifull in its simplicity, except I just got robbed, so its not so beautiful.

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Have you contacted Xfinity and asked for their input on this issue? Suggestions, explanation, etc… They are #1suppliers of WiFi and security.
What neighborhood are we talking ng about?

This is in Placerville California. I dont use Xfinity for WiFi, I have an ASUS WiFi Mesh setup for the house. The WiFi has alyays been rock solid and actually overkill for the size of the house. The signal strength is excellent at the Video Doorbell location.

Sorry to hear about this experience @Hydrology. Rest assured all of our devices communicate with our servers using advanced encryption. We are passionate about our neighbor’s security and are always working to put you at an advantage against crime.

As many of our devices are wifi-enabled, it does require a wifi signal to operate. If you’re concerned about specialized burglars using wifi jammers, we recommend checking out our Stick Up Cam Elite or Video Doorbell Elite, which have POE capabilities.

Wow…

Ring advertize that this is not suppose to happen with their products… I’m sorry that this happened to you… This should be addressed with RING, because their products are not cheap!

If this was true, you know they’d be in TV. Don’t believe everything you read. They could also cut the power of the house or block. Cut the internet to the house with wire cutters…
Highly doubtful anyone would do this for an unknown package.

Hello, We just had something similar happen to us here in Miami, FL. Some things were stolen from our porch in plain camera view but nothing was captured. We believe it may have been a neighbor who cut the power and therefore our wifi.

There is a way to prevent your wifi from going out due to a power interruption. A small battery backup for your router and modem to plug onto will keep them going for hours without power. They cost under $100. When my power does go out they keep my internet going and battery cams going for quite a long time. Sorry to hear someone got your stuff. I’ve had it happen many years ago myself. It’s the worst but I’ve upped my security since then. Lesson learned.

I just got a Ring cam and while I was reviewing a video of some people approaching my door, it got erased! Not by me.