Criminals in Montreal Using AirTags to Steal Vehicles

[GrayFlannel]

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?

Don’t waste time trying to make sense out of someone else’s nonsense especially when they’re a criminal.
It takes time to steal a car or car parts so maybe they were looking for a better time.
Perhaps they wanted to know where the driver lives to burglarize their home.

 

[klasma]

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

I have AirTags or compatible devices in my bike, bike bags, and wallet. I find that useful. People also use it on their pets.

 

[medazinol]

Montreal is the car theft capital of North America

 

[anthogag]

Grand Theft AirTag

A new game for Apple Arcade. Age rating 4 years old.

 

[klasma]

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.

Technically they certainly could, but it would probably require a warrant.

 

[doboy]

I have an AirTag in my car to track the thief.

 

[deeddawg]

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.

AirTags are connected to the AppleID, not necessarily the phone.

Easy enough to use a craigslist burner iphone setup over wifi at a coffeeshop with the fake AppleID, associate the airtags, turn off the phone. Then later that night go sit at some other coffee shop, power up the phone, see where the Airtags are, power off the phone.

 

[john123]

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

Thanks for this. I was trying to figure out what the missing link here was, and MitM makes perfect sense.

 

[deeddawg]

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

They had notification of tracking right from the start, so they clearly thought about it.

Thing is there's cheap trackers with actual GPS that also work great, but they don't get the press because they're not made by Apple. People don't click on new stories about someone getting stalked by some noname tracker bought on Amazon.

 

[anthogag]

Technically they certainly could, but it would probably require a warrant.

AirTags could come with a warning. Use it for illegal purposes and Apple reserves the right to give the criminal's iPhone location to police.

 

[NT1440]

AirTags could come with a warning. Use it for illegal purposes and Apple reserves the right to give the criminal's iPhone location to police.

You don’t just get to release a statement like that and have legal clearance to do such a thing across states and countries. That’s just not a thing.

 

[deeddawg]

AirTags could come with a warning. Use it for illegal purposes and Apple reserves the right to give the criminal's iPhone location to police.

From two years ago:

Advancements Coming to AirTag and the Find My Network​

The following updates represent important steps Apple is taking:

• New privacy warnings during AirTag setup: In an upcoming software update, every user setting up their AirTag for the first time will see a message that clearly states that AirTag is meant to track their own belongings, that using AirTag to track people without consent is a crime in many regions around the world, that AirTag is designed to be detected by victims, and that law enforcement can request identifying information about the owner of the AirTag.

 

[stefanovago]

I remember Unbox Therapy being tracked this way when he got his Porshe Tycan.

 

[BigBellyBelcher]

Totally sending drugs through with these cars and using the trackers to locate them later. Theres Kias in every town in America free for the taking.

Can us verified via Apple Card and multiple devices users get verified user functionality. I'm as trackable as my AirTags.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Nothing in the story says anything about thieves using them to take cars. Just that they were found on cars. That were summarily not stolen.

UPDATE: Clicked through to the story… AirTags “found on” cars that were not stolen.

 

[klasma]

AirTags could come with a warning. Use it for illegal purposes and Apple reserves the right to give the criminal's iPhone location to police.

This might not be legal without a warrant. Apple can’t just swat people based on conjectures.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

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.

I think they mean trackers specifically designed to be unobtrusive and not communicate their location, low cost trackers with built-in GPS that can be purchased for far cheaper than an Apple AirTag. And, since they don’t report their location or BEEP is unlikely to be found by the person being tracked.

 

[Mailia]

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?

They'll most likely follow your car home and then use a signal repeater outside your bedroom window if your car has keyless go. If your car is just at a parking lot, they don't know where you and the keyfob are.

 

[MrGimper]

Did this kind of thing not happen with Tile etc, or did nobody care then because it wasn’t as big a scare story?

 

[klasma]

I think they mean trackers specifically designed to be unobtrusive and not communicate their location, low cost trackers with built-in GPS that can be purchased for far cheaper than an Apple AirTag.

These trackers need devices in their vicinity that detect them to report their position.

 

[antiprotest]

Why wouldn't they use Tile instead? Too much attention is on AirTags now. And it can backfire badly. In any case, if my iPhone warns me that an AirTag is in my car, that's the thieves actually letting me know that they're coming for me, allowing me the time and attention to set a a sting operation to catch them. Of course, I'd transfer the tag to my neighbor's car first. And if the thieves are unlucky enough to tag a particular type of guy, the person could park at a secluded spot, hide in the woods and snipe them. They could be setting themselves up.

 

[GrayFlannel]

AirTags could come with a warning. Use it for illegal purposes and Apple reserves the right to give the criminal's iPhone location to police.

Apple said no to giving the FBI access to Syed Farook‘s information they won’t cooperate in a silly AirTag case.

 

[kelvin.lau]

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.

Terrible take...

The fact that anti stalking features exist on-release is evidence that Apple foresaw stalking/theft issues to occur.

I personally use it for my keys. Some folks in the cycling community place them in the bike frame to allow them to track down their bike if/when it gets stolen. One of my friends place it on their kid to track them in crowded markets.

 

[twintin]

Did this kind of thing not happen with Tile etc, or did nobody care then because it wasn’t as big a scare story?

The probability of finding something with Tile is as low as finding a needle in a haystack. Tiles own network is way smaller than apples (especially outside US boarders).

 

[hacky]

I have an AirTag in my car to track the thief.

The bad thing is - it's easy for thief to launch this Tracker Detect app and search for all your AirTags and disable them.

Ironically this Tracker Detect app Apple made is most useful for thieves - because stalker targets surely would not launch this app every time when entering their vehicle for instance that would be rather inconvenient...