You’re going to falsely accuse someone of committing armed robbery to the police? Sorry, but that’s just nuts.
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Criminals in Montreal Using AirTags to Steal Vehicles
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Maybe they should’ve thought twice about stealing my car. Most people work hard for their things. Dirtbag can rot. And assuming police don't actually find a gun on them the armed robbery charge would likely be dropped, but they’d still get hit with the well-earned grand theft charge.
Really though Hellcats, Camaros, Kias, and Hyundais are incredibly popular and easy to steal. As such, I’ve made my car far more difficult to steal so I don’t anticipate ever needing to do much more than replace a window if/when some thief finds out that it’s not just another sitting duck.
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lol.
If all we do is slap people on the back of the hand for doing wrong to others, those who do wrong will continue to do so as there is not a proper deterrent.
Yes, hanging might be an extreme, yet jail time and/or monetary fines don’t seem to be a deterrent enough.
How many companies have closed because of the massive amounts of theft? How many people have been hurt/killed because of theft? Etc.
I for one am not a fan of our current penal system. It cost a ton of money for the tax payers, and generally it doesn’t do what it is suppose to do which is educate and train the inmates so they don’t become repeat offenders.
I would like to make a comment about a certain American political party that definitely needs more than a "slap on the back of the hand" but the MacRumors staff have suspended my account on more than one occasion for daring to talk about things that actually matter.
I get what you're saying, but there's no way the thieves know that the car is going to be a worthwhile target. Most of the people I know with very expensive cars also have garages and live in neighborhoods where crime is noticed. I still think it would be easier to just go to a busy area with nice cars, find the best opportunity, and steal one. Unless there's something else happening, which must be the case.
sure, but most folks aren’t that likely to be targeted by the true pros. And if someone is, then they’d be wise to add a well hidden actual gps/cellular tracker powered by the vehicle’s battery.
Haven’t been following your conversation, but you sound like you’ve never experienced dealing with an insurance claim on a vehicle.
It sucks.
Sure, you get blue book value, less your deductible, but good luck finding an equivalent replacement for that amount. Plus you then have to pay the taxes on the replacement vehicle cost. Sucks even harder if the vehicle is just a couple years old as you lose all that initial depreciation.
So sure, insurance is better than not having it…. yet you’re still out a lot of money and time just to get back to where you started.
Dragging the car onto a flatbed tow truck in public in daytime gets noticed, and good chance there‘ll be plenty of video of the tow truck.
AirTag the car, go there in the middle of the night, sneak into the garage, use the car remote relay attack technique to fool the car into thinking you have the key fob, and you just drive it off into the night. Next stop a the chop shop or warehouse where a new fob can be programmed and the car taken to a shipping container to go overseas.
No, I don't think that something else is happening in the way that you mean. But people who presumably know a lot more about car theft than you or I apparently think that this is a worthwhile method.
Lol you’re free to ignore the discussion that you weren't even a part of, mate. Otherwise 🤷♂️. And I’ve got an agreed value policy to make sure I get what the car is actually worth if something happens to it. However, if I wanted the money instead of the car, I wouldn’t have bought it in the first place.
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Police departments… that actually know cheaper higher quality tracking and more discrete solutions exist on amazon… recommending AirTags, is 100% not surprising to me.
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The article indicates that the thieves use them to track the car to steal it later. I'm not sure if this has actually happened or whether an Airtag makes it any easier.
I think a more likely use case would be that the Canadian dudes, look for cars with US tags. They strap some illegal drugs or goods to the car. Put the Airtag on the car. Let the American bring it across the border. Find the car in the US and retrieve the goods.
If the American gets caught with the goods at the border, then the Canadians chalk up the loss, but they're not in jail.
In the original post, it’s three folks that have not had their car stolen, but found an AirTag on their vehicle. One of whom was a security researcher… if it’s happening, there’s nothing about this story that indicates it is.
This article is far from the first one regarding this topic.
Trouble is once the car's stolen there's not much way to know whether it was AirTag'd during the day for later theft or not. Even if recovered, the AirTag has likely already been removed to be used on the next target.
So it's sort of a "absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence" thing.
Of course, your proposed scenario of using US-tagged cars as unwitting drug mules and the AirTag to locate the vehicle once back in the US is certainly an additional possible use for AirTags.
Make connected iPhone shut down permanently if AirTag is found stalking others. But then they would just steal someone else's phone to track their Air Tags. Maybe make the phone explode on them? Lol... we can dream.
If I really put on my tin foil hat and dream up an extreme conspiracy scenario, we could say Apple knew about these possibilities, and this is a ploy to make everyone use iPhones!!! Only an iPhone user can detect said nefarious air tag tracking them and shut them down. Android users cannot... there is your next ad by Apple. "If you don't want to end up an unsuspecting drug mule... buy an iPhone" 😂🤣😅 What will Apple think of next to trick us or set us up for their next big marketing scheme?!?!?! I'm waiting for the sharks with freak'n laser beams to come after the AVP!!!
“Travelers who are concerned about being tracked via an AirTag should know that there are built-in safety features.”
I dare to say that the built-in safety features are not 100% effective. I think these criminals would agree with me. And i would not be surprised if the same is true for non-Apple trackers … if not, then Apple may have a problem if the word spreads.
I dare to say that the built-in safety features are not 100% effective. I think these criminals would agree with me. And i would not be surprised if the same is true for non-Apple trackers … if not, then Apple may have a problem if the word spreads.
Mmhh … eventually buying an Airtag or non-Apple may require a background check …
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
Stupid thieves, it is easy to disable the speaker of an AirTag so it won't beep. But I do see the benefit of an AirTag over cheaper trackers: it now has the sharing function that will allow them to share the tracker with the entire gang...
BTW: if they are considering to ban AirTags because it being used for crime while they are indended to protect yourself, maybe they should also ban guns...
BTW: if they are considering to ban AirTags because it being used for crime while they are indended to protect yourself, maybe they should also ban guns...
Nothing that small. Everything else requires GPS and thus more power for the receiver, bigger batteries etc.
AirTags only use Bluetooth, which only has a small transmit radius, thus less power requirements. The beauty of it is that it communicates via the ubiquitous nature of Apple devices, and it's location is re-transmitted to the AirTag owner (via Apple) by any Apple device within range, regardless of who owns that device.
I know this because I was looking for a small, cheap, anti-theft tracking device, and was initially excited by the announcement of AirTags, and then dismayed to discover the anti-tracking features, thus rendering it useless for that purpose.