'I'm being tracked': Woman's warning after receiving unusual iPhone alerts
A US woman has claimed she's being tracked via a tracking device that was planted on her after receiving bizarre alerts on her iPhone.
The woman posted a video to TikTok, explaining she had first received the disturbing notifications alerting her to the device, which indicate it was activated after visiting a Walmart store in Texas.
However, the woman hasn't been able to find a tracking device on any of her belongings and is unable to disconnect it from her phone without the device physically with her.
"Okay, so I think I'm being tracked [and it's] been happening to me since last night around 11:30pm," user angel.edge95 said in her video.
"The more I post about it, it seems like it's happening to a lot of people," the 26-year-old continued.
"And I don't know if I'm in danger or other people are in danger."
Received notification saying 'unknown accessory' detected nearby
The woman explained that she had flown from Texas to Maine, and shortly after she landed at the airport a disturbing alert popped up on her iPhone.
"So basically [it] said 'unknown accessories' detected near me and that it was first seen with me at 8.45 in the morning, when I was in Texas, at Walmart on the other side of the country," she explained.
Although there is an option to remove the device, when she tried to press disconnect it said it was unable to connect to the device to do so.
"On the bottom [of the notification] it says if you feel your safety is at risk due to this item, contact your local law enforcement," the woman said.
"Basically, I'm going to need the serial number of the device tracking me for them to shut it off anyway."
Tried turning off Bluetooth and location services
The woman said she kept getting notifications that whoever owned the device was tracking her and could see her location.
"Every time they physically checked my location, every time it was reloaded," she explained, adding she searched all her belongings but couldn't find a tracker.
"So I shut up my location services and I shut off my Bluetooth services and I thought that fixed the problem.
"But then I literally just got this notification saying that the owner can see my location again, and when I check it the owner did just check my location again.
"So I don't know if this is the new sex trafficking method. But please look out for your loved ones. Be extra careful and search your belongings if you get these notifications."
The woman later posted another video saying she had been to the police who had searched the bags she travelled with, but she hasn't heard anything else from them.
"The police told me to carry on as normal and to not say much else so I don't really know what they found yet, but I'm going to guess they found something," she said.
Followers concerned
The video has been liked 970,000 times with over 23,000 comments flooding the video, many users saying they had heard similar stories with women finding tracking devices on their belongings.
"I had a friend call me and he told me that his little sister had these exact same notifications come into her phone a couple of weeks ago and she ended up finding an Apple air tag hidden under her licence plate," the woman said in her video.
"How scary, I feel like there's a way for Apple to disable all current AirTags," one user commented on the video.
"Tell authorities," urged another. "You can never be too safe."
Apple AirTag privacy concerns
Engadget reported in July Apple has updated AirTags in order to address privacy concerns associated with the Bluetooth trackers, shortening the period of when an AirTag can be separated from its owner without making noise.
“Following up on our commitment to continue to improve AirTag’s privacy and security, starting today we will be updating the time period after which an AirTag that is separated from its owner will play a sound when moved,” an Apple spokesperson said in a statement via the publication.
“This time period is changing from three days to a random time between 8 and 24 hours.”
Yahoo News Australia have contacted Apple for comment.
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