Viral AirTag discovery behind license plate likely staged
A young woman has alleged that she found an Apple AirTag tucked behind her license plate on TikTok intended to stalk her, earning her nine million views -- but the recollection of the tale is suspicious.
Ashley, who goes by @_ashleyscarlett on TikTok, recently posted a video where she claims she's found an Apple AirTag tucked behind her license plate. She noted that a passenger in her car got an alert on their iPhone that an unfamiliar AirTag was tracking them.
In a later video, she explains that the AirTag had been placed on her car in a four-minute gap while she was parked in Los Angeles. She claims that the data was corroborated by her Dodge Charger's built-in tracking system.
She states that she called the police, who told her that the situation was "a non-life threatening emergency," and told her to report it down at the station. Ashley goes on to explain that she'd rather contact Apple with the information provided by the alert.
However, there are reasons to be skeptical of her story.
According to posts on both Ashley's Twitter and Instagram, she also has an iPhone which was presumably used to record the account of the incident. This means that her phone should have also received an alert during this time frame as well, assuming it wasn't her AirTag in the first place.
Additionally, Newsweek called the local police department to follow up on the allegations. A local public information officer for the Riverside police department stated that there were no reports of any such incident. Newsweek also attempted to contact Ashley but has not received a response.
Ashley said in her video that the AirTag supplied her with a partial phone number, which is questionable.
"And their phone number -- uh, I mean, the last 4 digits" were shown, according to the Newsweek reporting, and AppleInsider viewing of the video account. Given that AirTag owners select what information to display when an AirTag is scanned, it seems improbable that a stalker would tell Apple's iCloud that displaying this information would be acceptable, nor would it be useful in the case of an actual lost AirTag.
Apple has made sure to equip the AirTags with built-in anti-tracking features. An iPhone user will automatically receive a notification that an unknown AirTag has been following them.
Similarly, the alert provides information to the user and the ability to play a tone to help locate the device, as Ashley did.
Every AirTag features a unique serial number, which means it can be traced back to the iPhone it is paired with. This allows law enforcement and Apple to figure out who may have lost, misplaced, or placed an AirTag with ill-intent.
Read on AppleInsider
Ashley, who goes by @_ashleyscarlett on TikTok, recently posted a video where she claims she's found an Apple AirTag tucked behind her license plate. She noted that a passenger in her car got an alert on their iPhone that an unfamiliar AirTag was tracking them.
In a later video, she explains that the AirTag had been placed on her car in a four-minute gap while she was parked in Los Angeles. She claims that the data was corroborated by her Dodge Charger's built-in tracking system.
She states that she called the police, who told her that the situation was "a non-life threatening emergency," and told her to report it down at the station. Ashley goes on to explain that she'd rather contact Apple with the information provided by the alert.
@_ashleyscarlettReply to @ann_baby7 ##greenscreen ##greenscreenvideo I will be contacting @apple with the air tags info but never in a million years did I think!
original sound - ash
However, there are reasons to be skeptical of her story.
According to posts on both Ashley's Twitter and Instagram, she also has an iPhone which was presumably used to record the account of the incident. This means that her phone should have also received an alert during this time frame as well, assuming it wasn't her AirTag in the first place.
Additionally, Newsweek called the local police department to follow up on the allegations. A local public information officer for the Riverside police department stated that there were no reports of any such incident. Newsweek also attempted to contact Ashley but has not received a response.
Ashley said in her video that the AirTag supplied her with a partial phone number, which is questionable.
"And their phone number -- uh, I mean, the last 4 digits" were shown, according to the Newsweek reporting, and AppleInsider viewing of the video account. Given that AirTag owners select what information to display when an AirTag is scanned, it seems improbable that a stalker would tell Apple's iCloud that displaying this information would be acceptable, nor would it be useful in the case of an actual lost AirTag.
Apple has made sure to equip the AirTags with built-in anti-tracking features. An iPhone user will automatically receive a notification that an unknown AirTag has been following them.
Similarly, the alert provides information to the user and the ability to play a tone to help locate the device, as Ashley did.
Every AirTag features a unique serial number, which means it can be traced back to the iPhone it is paired with. This allows law enforcement and Apple to figure out who may have lost, misplaced, or placed an AirTag with ill-intent.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
It's possible that friend spends a lot of time in the car, but yes, it seems strange.
If I were a criminal I'd probably not rely on affixing AirTags to a license plate holder. I'd probably have some superglue handy and use that to attach the Tag to some unseen part of the car. Even so, I'm likely to remove my plastic license plate holder now.
Magnets might work to attach trackers, but most cars are made out of aluminum, which is not magnetic. Even steel is not always magnetic. But I did find this video showing how to attach a magnet to a car (that you own):
If you are using google to research this topic, make sure you say "tracker" instead of "bug" because there are thousands of websites related to cleaning six-legged "bugs" off your car.
I wonder how many car dealerships have had to find and remove AirTags for customers. Some of them could be well hidden.
I wonder if cars of the future could have tracker-detectors built-in. I don't see why not. Which manufacturer will be the first? I'd imagine they haven't even thought of this problem yet.
First, she indicates that she didn't go file a report with the police. So it makes sense that they wouldn't have a searchable report. Second, you can get the last 4 digits of the phone number a found AirTag is linked to even if it isn't in lost mode and the owner hasn't shared their whole phone number. (Using NFC you can get a link that leads to a page that looks like the second image on this page.) Third, I don't think she - in addition to her friend - would have gotten an alert about an unknown AirTag if she had bluetooth turned off on her iPhone. I'm not sure how common it is, but some people I know routinely have bluetooth turned off on their iPhones. And her friend might have just gotten the alert shortly before she would have. (Maybe her friend was traveling with her the whole time? That isn't clear.)
Anyway, maybe this is legit. Or, of course, maybe it isn't.
If it is staged, meh so what. If it raises awareness that AirTags can be used in this way, and to pay attention to alerts that an unknown AirTag is close by then all the better.
Nurses and other healthcare professionals are instructed to avoid such fake nails: Not only do they interfere with the job but they foster bacteria and fungi that can be passed on to patients. Think of wearing the same underwear for days and weeks without washing either it or yourself.
It seems that truth has no meaning or value these days and is meant to be bent, twisted and even invented for fun and profit.
Air Tags are about as bad as routing with Apple Maps.
As psych nurse I had a number of patients who preferred their own version of reality. The real thing was just too hard for them.
This is definitely dual-use technology. As someone who would be concerned about someone stealing, say, my camera bag, I would rather it be harder for a thief to detect or disable my AirTag. But, the better AirTags are for that use case, the better they are for stalkers. But even better for stalkers would be throwing any still functioning iPhone into a car. Those won't beep and will connect to cell phone networks themselves. Since it won't use the screen and the only thing you need it to do is ping the Find My network, you can run it in low power mode with the screen off and it will probably run for two days. Admittedly, an AirTag is only $25 and is a lot smaller, but if you are really going to stalk somebody using tech, you can get an older iPhone for $150 and do so perfectly well, particularly if you are willing to stalk their car rather than, say, their purse.