Amazon recently sent an AirTag new in the box to my address with a different name to someone who has never lived here. It was in a sealed Apple box, I tried to give it back an they told me to keep it or throw it out. It is unused and never activated from what I can tell. Could this be a scam of some sort if I decided to keep it and activate it?
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Free AirTag?
- Thread starter blap
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sounds like a free airtag.
unless someone repackaged it, it is not registered with findmy and not trackable by anyone. you will not be able to register it if it is already associated with another account.
if they did, they already know where it is, and you cannot factory reset it to remove the association with the orginal owner. in this case remove its battery and make it some sort of 'art piece' or just recycle it.
How to reset your AirTag - Apple Support
Learn when you need to reset your AirTag and how to do it.
Okay, It is not showing up on my phone so I guess it has not been activated otherwise it would tell me it's nearby? I have still never had a notification from any AirTag, this one or otherwise one is nearby. Don't they tell you if someone has one on them when you're near one? I don't quite understand these things, wouldn't a thief with an iPhone know that there is an AirTag in something stolen?
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it would take some time to trigger and it would also need to move with you (else random peoples tags in public places would constantly alert).
you should be able to tap it with an nfc capable iphone and see information about it.
How to find the serial number of an AirTag - Apple Support
To find the serial number of an AirTag, use the Find My app, tap it with an NFC-capable smartphone, or look under the battery.
yes, a 'thief' in a stolen car that was airtagged would be notified. and in that notification they would be prompted to ring the tag or (if their device capable) use precision finding to locate it. but again, this anti-stalking feature does take some time to engage. apple states airtags are not intended to be anti-theft devices.
this is why if you are bugging a device that may get stolen, you should consider a third party findmy device. third party findmy tags do not support precision finding and therefore would be MUCH harder to find. additionally, some people choose to neuter the speakers of both types of tags for this use case.
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