Apple Airtag as Anti-theft Device

[freerhunter16]

Are you sure its not alerting off the tag in your daughters backpack by mistake? Or you dropped one on accident between the seats?

My daughter doesn’t have one. I was quoting another response in my post above. We have never owned an AirTag.

[Etxbuckman]

So if the AirTag isn't a good option for this kind of thing, does anyone have any ideas what would be?

[BlackoutRam2500]

I can assure you this happens. We are dealing with this right now. My wife received a notification that she was being followed on Thursday. Apparently, someone placed an airtag somewhere on her vehicle. We notified police, they came to the house and searched extensively. We took it to my mechanic and had him put it on the lift and spent several hours searching. We still have not been able to locate it.

That's some scary stuff man. My wife's car would be at the dealership today getting traded in on a new ride.

And where is Apple in this? My thoughts are once they are contacted by law enforcement informing them of the situation they should be able to deactivate that device.... otherwise be held liable if anything happens. [emoji34]

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[Bill]

So if the AirTag isn't a good option for this kind of thing, does anyone have any ideas what would be?

See my posts above about the Spot tracker.


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[kry226]

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-airtag-moving-company/

[alien_scones]

Are the Airtags android compatible? I know the Apple Air Pods are. But those are BT.

There is an Android app available in the Play Store ( from Apple ) that you can use to detect Air Tags.


Other than that Air Tags don't use Android.


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[Texas Grown]

There is an Android app available in the Play Store ( from Apple ) that you can use to detect Air Tags.


Other than that Air Tags don't use Android.


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Thank you sir! I'll check into it.

The fish are biting, and there's hogs to be kill-t. Gotta go!

[TA_Fab]

It is not one of ours. We have never owned an AirTag. The notification was an alert that took her to her maps and showed her the exact route she had been. It had an option to disable the AirTag, but when you click that option it gives an error message. We have driven the car and received the notification three different times. We can not make it play a sound.

We contacted Apple to determine if another device could be causing this notification (air pods, iPad, etc.) and were told no.. that it is definitely an AirTag. Not sure what our next move is at this point but I can tell you we are armed and on full alert at all times. Scary stuff.

Man that’s scary, just another thing to worry about. I hope y’all get it resolved!


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[tvc184]

Was this a text message, voice message, or what?

My question is...does EVERY iPhone within a prescribed distance from the AirTag receive a notification? If there were 20 people in a crowd, standing near the vehicle with the tag, do they ALL receive a notification??? This makes no sense to me.

Can someone, who actually knows, explain who gets the notification?

So, your wife was NOT ABLE to "play sound" to locate it?

When I saw this thread yesterday, I went to the Apple site and started reading up on it.

I was kind of a geeky tech person about 20 years ago and would not only build computers but would overclock them for a better speed and such. Now I know almost nothing about techy stuff but if I understand what I read correctly……

The Apple tag runs off of Bluetooth which does not have that much range. If I understood it correctly, it would be able to be picked up by a cell phone a few hundred feet away at the most. Obviously if you lost something it might be a lot farther away than that. The way it notifies you is that if anyone using an iPhone, iPad or MacBook using Bluetooth walks within range, the signal will basically piggyback off of their device and ping a cell tower which will broadcast to you. Again if I understood it correctly, the person whose device pinged it, will not know. It will only be a signal the person who owns the tag and it will not make a noise on that piggyback person’s device or the tag. It only uses that person’s device as a means to ping a tower for a second. Once it locks in that position, it will send it to you only.

Meaning… any one of us using an Apple device with Bluetooth activated might have help recover a personal property and never known it.

The tag App also has an arrow pointing device so when you get within a few feet of it, it will point to where it is located.

Clear as mud?

[Etxbuckman]

See my posts above about the Spot tracker.


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Totally missed that. Thanks.

[Burnadell]

When I saw this thread yesterday, I went to the Apple site and started reading up on it.

I was kind of a geeky tech person about 20 years ago and would not only build computers but would overclock them for a better speed and such. Now I know almost nothing about techy stuff but if I understand what I read correctly……

The Apple tag runs off of Bluetooth which does not have that much range. If I understood it correctly, it would be able to be picked up by a cell phone a few hundred feet away at the most. Obviously if you lost something it might be a lot farther away than that. The way it notifies you is that if anyone using an iPhone, iPad or MacBook using Bluetooth walks within range, the signal will basically piggyback off of their device and ping a cell tower which will broadcast to you. Again if I understood it correctly, the person whose device pinged it, will not know. It will only be a signal the person who owns the tag and it will not make a noise on that piggyback person’s device or the tag. It only uses that person’s device as a means to ping a tower for a second. Once it locks in that position, it will send it to you only.

Meaning… any one of us using an Apple device with Bluetooth activated might have help recover a personal property and never known it.

The tag App also has an arrow pointing device so when you get within a few feet of it, it will point to where it is located.

Clear as mud?

Thanks, TVC! That helps this technophobe!

[Duane]

I bought several for my son going to school at A&M, along with a key ring holder and other attachments. He keeps one on his key ring, one in his backpack, one in the car and for Christmas he was given a money clip type wallet that has a holder for one. He’s found them to be pretty useful around the house and on campus. Not necessarily a foolproof anti-theft device, but handy enough for an absent minded college kid.

[helibow]

I installed Trak4 on all mine - worth the investment. I pay $9 for hourly updates on location. If they move, it tells me.. and I can switch it to real time tracking if I need.

[RiverRat1]

Any recent Airtag stories or updates?

[Atfulldraw]

I’m a fan…I think total we have a dozen or so of them, but not all are on the same account.



my stuff tends to get scattered and I have equipment that is used by multiple employees….

There are iPhones everywhere.


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