Earlier quoted context omitted.
No - you buy a burner phone at any convenience store, using cash, pop the sim card out of the phone, and put it into the GPS tracker.
Good to know. We don't have burner phones over here, and can't verify, however I thought their SIM cards were locked so that they couldn't be used on other devices.
Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar
271–280 of 383 posts
Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar
#272"Of sexual abuse cases reported to law enforcement, 93% of juvenile victims knew the perpetrator: 59% were acquaintances. 34% were family members. 7% were strangers to the victim. also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquaintance_rape >this morning while I was asleep I had someone close to me check my car and they found it stuck on the underside of my front passenger wheel well. I wish he took pics before he threw it a…
Not impossible (e.g., an impulsive boyfriend or familiar admirer with control issues naively wanting to find out where she goes or purposefully scare her as part of larger big-brain ploy), but depending on her car an AirTag-assisted car theft attempt could be more likely: https://www.yrp.ca/en/Modules/News/index.aspx?newsId=167fa5b...
Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
Couldn't someone just slip a phone in a bag to do the same thing?
Yes, but that’s probably a larger and more expensive device.
Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar
#274This is news just because it's an Apple device being used for something that was already trivially possible. GPS trackers designed to be magnet-attached to a car which report their location via cell signal cost ~$20 on Amazon. You then tend to need to pay for either a SIM card or a subscription to the device maker's service -- bringing you up to about the cost of an AirTag. These are much harder to detect, as you mig…
I am wondering: - Would a GPS tracker placed at this position be able to catch the GPS signal? If I understand it correctly, an airtag communicate via bluetooth and would get the location from a phone in range? - An airtag do not require a SIM card. Are they easily traceable or is it hard to get to the owner?
Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar
#275While it’s theoretically possible that this happened, I think this particular story was made up. For a number of reasons: 1) How did the stalker know that that’s her car? She said she was on a night out. Unless she went back to her car all the time, he must have seen her arrive in it. 2) Sticking an AirTag to the inside of the front wheel well isn’t easy. There is dirt and grime there and the surfaces aren’t flat. Th…
Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
Trivially possible? I wouldn’t know how to use or where to buy a GPS tracker. I’m sure it’s not super hard. But not as easy as an airtag. But now anyone with an iPhone can buy a $25 device and track anyone. I would guess that Airtags are also smaller than gps trackers.
I thought that too. Google GPS tracker and the first result are trackers for about $30. They come with a SIM Card and and a Online Service for $5 so you can track the tracker. Also comes with an alarm if someone removes the tracker. This is really trivial...
The first results in Google for me are $50 and are about 10-20x the size as an Airtag. Also multiple parts.
Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar
#277Apple AirTag Linked to Increasing Number of Car Thefts, Canadian Police Report - https://nypost.com/2021/12/07/carjackers-are-using-this-new-...
Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why exactly is it lower effort than a cellular GPS tracker from Amazon? They're around the same size, and roughly the same cost.
When you open a GPS tracker you find a SIM and that's enough to identify the owner in any country that requires an ID to get a SIM. AirTags are anonymous by design AFAIK. Furthermore the owner is spared with the burden of getting a SIM (time and cost), ID or not.
Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar
#279This is news just because it's an Apple device being used for something that was already trivially possible. GPS trackers designed to be magnet-attached to a car which report their location via cell signal cost ~$20 on Amazon. You then tend to need to pay for either a SIM card or a subscription to the device maker's service -- bringing you up to about the cost of an AirTag. These are much harder to detect, as you mig…
> In fact, this is news we're hearing about because of the steps Apple took to make it harder to use these devices for bad purposes. I've got Android. Where do i see a warning? Ps. No, people with Android will not have a Apple app installed. It's the wrong solution for that problem.
Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar
#280Can someone just put any random AirTag on someone's car and have it trigger alerts on nearby iphones? Does one have to do something to activate it first? Curious if all one needs to do is get one and stick it on a randos car to cause psychological distress without even pairing with a phone or otherwise registering/activating the thing.
I'm pretty sure it needs to be activated to an Apple account. But seriously, people here way overthink things. If a random sicko wants to cause someone psychological distress there are a million ways that they can unfortunately do so that don't involve elaborate technology.