Criminals in Montreal Using AirTags to Steal Vehicles

[MacRumors]

Thieves in Montreal, Canada have been using Apple's AirTags to facilitate vehicle theft, according to a report from Vermont news sites WCAX and NBC5 (via 9to5Mac). Police officers in Burlington, Vermont have issued a warning about AirTags for drivers who recently visited Canada.

Two Burlington residents found Apple AirTags in their vehicles after returning from trips to Montreal, and these are not the first reports that officers have encountered. One man, Ethan Yang, said he was coming from Montreal after visiting family, and he was alerted that there was an AirTag traveling with him. He was able to use his phone to make the AirTag beep, and he was able to locate the device, which had been placed in the front grille of the vehicle.

Ryan McLiverty, a cyber analyst at the Vermont Intelligence Center, said that while these incidents have been happening for some time, there has been a new spike in activity. Criminals in Montreal are using AirTags to track cars, steal them, and then sell them abroad. There's also a possibility that the AirTags are being used to tag cars as part of an effort to move drugs across the border.

Travelers who are concerned about being tracked via an AirTag should know that there are built-in safety features. An AirTag will send an alert if it is not within distance of the person that owns it, and this alert will show up on iPhones. Android phones are also able to detect unknown Bluetooth trackers, including AirTags, plus Apple has a Tracker Detect app that scans for them.

Article Link: Criminals in Montreal Using AirTags to Steal Vehicles

 

[VulchR]

Seems like a perfect setup for a police sting operation...

 

[roar08]

Sounds like Canada will be banning AirTags along with the Flipper Zero .

 

[anthogag]

Is there a way for Apple to see the iPhone owner of the criminal AirTag and give to police information to locate the owner's iPhone?

 

[Realityck]

Travelers who are concerned about being tracked via an AirTag should know that there are built-in safety features. An AirTag will send an alert if it is not within distance of the person that owns it, and this alert will show up on iPhones. Android phones are also able to detect unknown Bluetooth trackers, including AirTags, plus Apple has a Tracker Detect app that scans for them.

All good information to know about.

 

[Cheesehead Dave]

How would they be used to help steal a car? If your car is parked somewhere they can stash a tag in it without notice, why wouldn't they just steal it then?

 

[NT1440]

Meanwhile, the NYPD is giving out AirTags in a PR move to cut down on theft (despite Apple themselves being extremely clear that this is not the designed use-case of the device).

Law enforcement is going to do and say what they do🤷‍♂️ (which is often lie or do something completely nonsensical).

NYC to distribute Apple AirTags to fight rising car thefts

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that the city is planning to give away 500 Apple AirTags to prevent rising car thefts.

abcnews.go.com

 

[Aiii83]

Surely there are better and probably cheaper trackers they could use that don’t have anti-stalker features?

 

[SuperCachetes]

Is there a way for Apple to see the iPhone owner of the criminal AirTag and give to police information to locate the owner's iPhone?

There is the "Identify Found item" command in the Find My app, but I suspect the info it provides is only as good as what the AirTag owner entered. I tried it just now with my wife's AirTag and the command would not work, so I can't verify exactly what info it gives...

How would they be used to help steal a car? If your car is parked somewhere they can stash a tag in it without notice, why wouldn't they just steal it then?

Because it is much easier to wait and see if the car ends up somewhere much more secluded and private and then steal it at 4:00 in the morning when a lot of the world is likely asleep. Not speaking from experience, but the logic's not complicated. I don't think we're talking about entry-level cars that are being targeted here.

 

[deeddawg]

Is there a way for Apple to see the iPhone owner of the criminal AirTag and give to police information to locate the owner's iPhone?

AirTags are associated with an AppleID, but an AppleID doesn't necessarily give you (Apple) the associated person's real identity.

 

[seanmcbay]

How would they be used to help steal a car? If your car is parked somewhere they can stash a tag in it without notice, why wouldn't they just steal it then?

Yeah, makes no sense. One idiot tried something so now we have to act like it’s a global organized crime operation.

 

[Fuzzball84]

These things were reported on their release... these things have been going on a long long time. Tracking vehicles, people... Police know all about it for a long while now.

All nefarious and it is good that their are ways to find out or know if an AirTag has been placed on you, your bag or vehicle.

 

[deeddawg]

How would they be used to help steal a car? If your car is parked somewhere they can stash a tag in it without notice, why wouldn't they just steal it then?

It allows the thieves to know where the car is parked overnight, where they can then more easily steal it via a car remote relay attack. See https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/n...warned-of-another-theft-enabling-relay-attack

Edit - and apparently just hacking the CAN bus is a thing now too... again something much more easily done in the middle of the night than in the daytime in a busy parking lot.

There’s a new form of keyless car theft that works in under 2 minutes

As car owners grow hip to one form of theft, crooks are turning to new ones.

arstechnica.com

 

[Fuzzball84]

Yeah, makes no sense. One idiot tried something so now we have to act like it’s a global organized crime operation.

Presumably they mark expensive or luxury cars... then steal it when its in a quieter location etc

 

[NT1440]

Presumably they mark expensive or luxury cars... then steal it when its in a quieter location etc

Or if it’s certain years of Kia, they just get in and drive away 😅

 

[8CoreWhore]

Imagine getting arrested because police dog indicated for drugs in or under your car but it was put there by someone else to get it across the border.

 

[ryan102]

I can’t believe Apple actually released AirTags onto the market and didn’t see all these issues with stalking/thefts occurring.

The only thing people seem to have found useful in real world experience seems to be ability to track their luggage when travelling.

Just like the VisionPro where people suddenly seem to want to watch any movie they can to justify what they paid and feel part of ‘the future’ despite probably not have cared about a movie for months/years prior to the headset going on their face.

Be interesting if Apple is foolish enough to release another Gen of these trackers. Considering it hasn’t happened yet, maybe they’ll pretend the thing never came out and move quietly on.

 

[anthogag]

AirTags are associated with an AppleID, but an AppleID doesn't necessarily give you (Apple) the associated person's real identity.

I am not talking abut the owner's fake identity, I am talking about simply locating the iPhone connected to the nefarious AirTag. The criminal would have to carry and use the iPhone to track the AirTag.

 

[The_Gream]

We really need to bump up our punishments for stupid stuff like this: theft has always been one the things that pisses me off the most.

Back in the day, if you stole a person’s horse, you got hung tell dead. Most people work for what they have and can’t easily replace it.

 

[spazzcat]

Sounds like Canada will be banning AirTags along with the Flipper Zero .

Because this was totally not happending before airtags came out ...

 

[klasma]

Surely there are better and probably cheaper trackers they could use that don’t have anti-stalker features?

There are cheaper trackers that work with Find My, but that would still trigger the same anti-stalker alerts. Trackers not using Find My have the drawback that there are much fewer devices around tracking them.

 

[iLuddite]

Grand Theft AirTag

 

[anthogag]

There is the "Identify Found item" command in the Find My app, but I suspect the info it provides is only as good as what the AirTag owner entered. I tried it just now with my wife's AirTag and the command would not work, so I can't verify exactly what info it gives...


Because it is much easier to wait and see if the car ends up somewhere much more secluded and private and then steal it at 4:00 in the morning when a lot of the world is likely asleep. Not speaking from experience, but the logic's not complicated. I don't think we're talking about entry-level cars that are being targeted here.

A criminal using an AirTag is definitely using fake ID information. Apple could give to police GPS coordinates of the criminal's iPhone.

 

[klasma]

Imagine getting arrested because police dog indicated for drugs in or under your car but it was put there by someone else to get it across the border.

They should train police dogs to find AirTags.

 

[spazzcat]

Surely there are better and probably cheaper trackers they could use that don’t have anti-stalker features?

Yes, there are several, but thankfully most criminals are really stupid.