As much as you may love your AirTags, they can also be used for evil.
Per WCAX, NBC5, and 9to5Mac, police officers in Burlington, Vermont have issued a warning about AirTags for drivers who recently visited Canada.
In this case, two Burlington, Vermint residents discovered AirTags tracking devices that had been placed in their vehicles after returning from trips to Montreal. 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.
According to Ryan McLiverty, a cyber analyst with the Vermont Intelligence Center, these incidents have been occurring for some time, and there’s been a recent spike in the activity. Criminals out of Montreal have been 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.
For users concerns about being tracked via an AirTag, the unit will send an alert if it is not within distance of the person who 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 over on the Google Play store that scans for them. Where the iPhone and iPad are concerned, a number of apps are available to help scan and locate nearby Bluetooth devices in your immediate vicinity.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.