(upbeat music) - [Narrator] One night
back in December 2021, Twitter user Sega_Jeanasis headed out to the bar for a drink. It had been a tough work week and she was looking forward to unwinding. Little did she know her night would end up taking a decidedly darker turn. After she finished her drink, the young woman went back to her car, got in, and started driving home. But suddenly, her phone began vibrating over and over again with
the same notification, apparently, an unidentified device had been detected on her car and somebody was following her. Stick around to find
out what the device was, and why she should've called
the police straightaway. (gentle music) Worryingly, unsettling
stories like Sega_Jeanasis' seem to be more commonplace than ever. In April 2022, a mother
and daughter from Tennessee went on a relaxing trip to Disney World. They spent a day there enjoying everything the park had to offer, before returning to their
car late in the evening. On their way back to the vehicle however, the mom felt a buzz from her cell phone. So, she checked it and
got the shock of her life. A notification told her that
they were being followed! Panicking, they both jumped into the car and made a beeline for their hotel while dialing the police. And just a few months
earlier, in January 2022, American swimsuit model Brooks Nader had fallen victim to a similar terror. After a night out in New York City, she'd decided to save
some money and walk home. But on her way back, her
phone started buzzing. Apparently, an unknown device had been detected nearby
for the last 5 hours. What she discovered next would haunt her. So, what could it all mean? What do each of these freaky
stories have in common? Well, here's a clue, it
involves this mysterious object. Although I gotta say right now, the biggest mystery to
me is why you haven't hit the like and subscribe buttons yet! You'll get more content just
like this fed straight to you, so you'll never miss out again. All done? Great, let's unravel this mystery. To understand exactly what
links all of these stories, I'll leave it up to Brooks Nader herself to give you the full breakdown of what happened that fateful night. - And I was at the bar and I
was waiting on someone alone, had my coat like on the chair behind me, whatever, it was crowded, lots of people. Then I went to meet some
girlfriends at a bar nearby. Didn't get any notifications,
nothing like that. And stupidly, I was walking home alone 'cause I lived in the
neighborhood around like 11:30 PM and once I was already on
my walk home, halfway home I got a notification that was like this someone's cracking you
and has been for a while. So I freaked out obviously and then of course my phone died, so my man was freaking out. It was like midnight. - [Narrator] Still confused. Well, I'll cut straight to the chase. Brooks as well as everybody
else I've mentioned, was being nefariously tracked by stalkers using a small round
device called an AirTag. It turns out while Brooks had been waiting for a drink at the bar, someone had slipped one
into her coat pocket. Thankfully, she found and disposed of it before anything worse could happen. But it could've been very different. So if you find one of these that you didn't buy, call the cops. These things were released
by Apple back in April 2021, and they're supposed to help you keep track of your
belongings, not other people. Essentially, anyone who
owns an iPhone or iPad and an AirTag can attach the
tag to pretty much anything and it'll transmit the location
back to their smart device. That way, if you lose
something like your purse, which ordinarily wouldn't be trackable, you can pinpoint exactly where it is. Crazily, the devices don't
even have built in GPS the technology behind Satnavs and your phone's location services. Instead, they send off a Bluetooth signal that's picked up by any
nearby Apple devices, regardless of the owner, which then use their GPS to
bounce the signal to the iCloud. Once this has happened, you
can go into your iPhone's Find My app to pinpoint the exact location of your AirTag, and I mean exact. Recent Apple phones have
software built into them which turn them into a sort of compass, with an arrow pointing you
directly to the tracker, damn. What's more, because there's no GPS on the devices themselves,
they're super cheap, at around $30 a piece. Now, this all sounds great if they were only used for
their intended purpose, but of course, that's
unfortunately not the case. And when in the wrong hands, AirTags become a
stalker's dream come true. Indeed, criminals can even paint the tiny white devices black, making them even harder to find. I'm getting creeped out
just thinking about it. And they don't stop at
planting the devices on you. As we've seen with Brooks, you'll probably just find it if it's anywhere as simple as your pocket. But what if the stalker had planted it on her car instead, whilst she was out? She might never have found it. And this isn't a hypothetical, it happens all the time. Criminals will wait until
you've parked your car, then hide one somewhere on the vehicle. That way, there's less
chance of you catching them, and they can still track
you back to your home, either to stalk you or steal your car. In December 2021, a Detroit
man bought a new Dodge Charger and only had it for two days before discovering an AirTag on it. Luckily, he found the device
in time, got rid of it, and prevented the theft, but plenty of others
haven't been so fortunate. By using strong tape, criminals can stick them in
a hidden place on a vehicle and remain undetected. Seriously, they've been found everywhere from inside wheel wells to
underneath license plates. - [Woman] I'm literally shaking, look what I just found on my car. Tucked in right here. Like all the way in the back. - [Narrator] Jeez. Now finding an AirTag hidden in your wheel well or
beneath your license plate is obviously a sign something's not right. But even if you find one
somewhere more obvious, a criminal could still have put it there, just not to track you. Yeah, hear me out. Reddit user BeefyMcMeaty discovered one under his car's wiper blades. Not exactly the most
ingenious hiding place, right? Confused, he asked people online about it. It turns out, a thief
might've stolen something, realized it had an AirTag attached to it, and ditched the tag on BeefyMcMeaty's car. Not only would that stop
anyone from tracking the thief, but if the cops were called, they'd chase the wrong guy. Sheesh. Thankfully, as we've seen, if an AirTag that isn't yours is nearby for a suspicious amount of time, it'll ping your phone with a notification. So, if it's in an obvious place or not, you should eventually know about it. Which brings us back to our
old friend Sega_Jeanasis. If you remember, she'd been at
the bar one night after work and was driving home when suddenly her phone started buzzing. It was a notification. Apparently, an unknown AirTag had been detected moving with her. At first thinking she might've
just picked up the signal from a random passer-by's AirTag, Sega didn't think much of it. But then her phone
buzzed again, and again. With a sinking feeling,
she realized it was so late that there weren't any passers-by. The tag had to be in her car. But after checking her coat, purse and seats in a blind panic, she couldn't see one anywhere. So, not knowing what else to do, she drove to a friend's house to avoid spending the night alone. Thankfully, she slept over
with no further drama. The next morning she asked her friend to give her car another search. Sure enough, after rooting around on the underside of her
front passenger wheel well, they pulled out what was
unmistakeably an Apple AirTag. Someone must've stuck it there while she was in the bar the night before. They could've been behind
her the whole time, tracking her every move. Sega felt sick and threw
the device away immediately, before taking to Twitter to warn others of the dangers they pose. What if she'd gone home alone that night and her pursuer had learnt her address? Or what if the device
had never been found? It doesn't bear thinking about. And what about the mother and daughter that had been visiting Disney World? If you remember, the mom received the same terrifying notification. When she checked her phone, she found out a tag had
been detected near them multiple times throughout the trip, like it was with them the whole day. She called the police, but after searching all
of their possessions and checking her car, they
never actually found anything. So, the cops couldn't act. Damn. If somebody had
planted a tag on them then, it must've fallen off at
some point, pretty lucky. Even so, calling the cops
was the right thing to do and heaven forbid, if you ever find yourself in
this scenario, do the same. Not that the police are
always the good guys. Back in June 2022, a former Miami PD officer
named Javier Magarin was embroiled in an
AirTag scandal so crazy that it made national headlines. Buckle up, because this
one gets totally wild. A few months earlier, in March, Magarin's girlfriend
had split up with him, citing "irreconcilable differences". However, Magarin wasn't
about to just let her go. Oh no. Instead, he decided
the best course of action was to start stalking her. Right. The then-cop bought an AirTag and planted it on her car in order to keep tabs on her. He wasn't subtle about it either, whenever she'd drive anywhere, he'd text her the exact
address she was at. What a creep. Despite this, he point
blank denied hiding a tag but his ex wasn't convinced. After she confronted him, Magarin eventually
admitted he'd planted one under a mat in the trunk of her car. Angry but willing to let it slide and avoid any further drama, his ex found the tag and threw it away. But that was far from the end. After booking a much-needed vacation and heading to the airport, she discovered it had
been canceled, by Magarin. He must've logged into her
e-mail without her realizing. Enraged, she called him up and
told him to leave her alone or there'd be serious consequences. Well, he didn't. A few days later she found another AirTag stuck to the bottom of her car. Jeez. Seriously? This time, it was the last straw. She reported Magarin to
Miami PD, his own department and records obtained from the
device confirmed her story. In Florida, unwanted tracking
through any means is a crime, and Magarin was as guilty as they come. He was arrested and jailed, and though he's since
been released on bond, at the time of this video he faces charges of both stalking and illegal
use of a tracking device. Though undeniably harrowing
for the poor victim, this particular story has at least some kind of happy ending. Sadly though, this isn't always the case. Which begs the question, how has Apple actually
responded to all of this? Well, they issued a
statement in February 2022, detailing several safeguards that are supposed to stop
any AirTag-related crime from being possible. One of these is the notification that's sent out to nearby iPhones. Whilst it's definitely useful, you can hardly say it
stops crime in its tracks. Plus, if you don't own an
iPhone, you're out of luck. Android devices have no way to passively detect unwanted tags. Apple have released an
app to the Play Store that seeks out nearby tags, but you have to manually
open the app to use it. So, you'd need to already
suspect an AirTag is on you for some reason to stand
a chance of finding it. This, isn't ideal. But there is another safeguard. If separated from their
owner for too long, AirTags start beeping. (continuous beeping) So, if you hear that
coming from your handbag, wallet, or anywhere else
nearby, check it out, it might be time to call the police. When the trackers first came out, this beeping would only
begin after three days, which wasn't very helpful. That has since been updated and now the tags beep at a
random time between eight and 24 hours after separation. Which seems weird to me, I mean, why not after
eight hours every time? But hey, at least it's a
shorter time than it was. If you do find an AirTag
you don't recognize, you can also hold it up to your iPhone to display the serial number
of the device its registered to and help track down its origin. If you don't own an iPhone, don't despair, if your smartphone is NFC enabled you can still scan the
AirTag to find its number. Or you can simply pop the battery out by pushing the steel back of the device in and turning it anti-clockwise. The serial number will be behind. In fact, you should take the
battery out like this anyway, regardless of the phone you have, then you know nobody
can track you with it. It's good that Apple has taken steps to improve the AirTag's security, and they say they're committed
to updating it more and more. But those updates can't come soon enough. Crafty YouTubers have already found a way to remove the speakers inside AirTags to prevent them from beeping. Sometimes, I wish YouTube
wasn't so popular. It's also worth noting that Apple's AirTag isn't the only mass-produced
tracking device on the market. Samsung's SmartTag is a similar product that also uses Bluetooth
for its location finding, so if you find one of
these that you didn't buy, it's worth investigating too. However, its tracking is
less pinpoint accurate than Apple's equivalent, which should make a criminal's
job a little harder. The Samsung SmartThings
app also has a tracker for unknown SmartTags, but once again, you have to
actually open the app to use it. Classic. Oh, and there's also Tiles. No, your kitchen floor isn't suddenly going to start spying on you. Tiles are yet another device that use Bluetooth in a similar way. And yet again, you can't scan for them without opening an app
and doing it manually. Jeez, I'm noticing a pattern here. SmartTags and Tiles aren't
as popular as AirTags, so there aren't as many
horror stories yet, but somebody did find a Tile taped to the bottom of their car as recently as October 2022. Man. So, what are we supposed to do? Download a different scanning app for each tracking device and spend our lives
switching between them, scanning everywhere as we go? No thanks. But with criminals able to
disable the built-in alarm, until these companies band together to work on a proper solution, I guess we've just got
to stay vigilant. Great. And I'm afraid staying vigilant means more than just keeping
an eye out for trackers. Tracking devices like AirTags and Tiles aren't the only common
pieces of technology that criminals can use against you. Some creepers have started
buying listening devices too, and just like the trackers, you can pick them up on Amazon. Man, that really bugs me. All joking aside, it's frighteningly easy for evil doers to listen in
on your private conversations. As well as being cheap, many of these devices also come disguised as common household objects, from USB sticks to phone chargers. So if somebody managed to
sneak one into your home, you might not even realize what it is even if you looked straight at it. Creepy. No matter what
they look like though, they've always got a microphone, which silently records sound and either stores it on
an SD card in the device or transmits it straight
to the owner's smartphone. If it goes straight to their phone, well, you're out of luck. But if the recording is
stored in the device, you can bet whoever planted it there will be coming back for it. Back in 2020, Debbie Wearing
Jones in Birmingham, UK, found this out the hard way. She'd gone to visit her
partner in Nottingham and had long entrusted
her neighbors, the Nolans, with a spare key to feed her cats whenever she was gone. When she returned however, she discovered a tiny device
underneath her coffee table that she didn't recognize and another behind her bed's headboard. Confused and scared, she set up a hidden camera in the bedroom to catch the perpetrator in case they came to get the devices back. The next week she went
to see her partner again, but this time when she returned, she checked over the footage. To her shock and disgust,
there was Bill Nolan, sneaking into her home
to pick up the devices. Debbie sent her son to the neighbors' house to confront Nolan,
who claimed he was just looking for the cats. Right. He quickly gave
up on that story however and plead guilty to stalking. He was sentenced to 15 weeks in prison, ordered to pay $350 in compensation, and given an indefinite restraining order. Luckily for Debbie, the
devices Bill had planted weren't disguised as anything else so she found them pretty easily, but even if they had been, there are some ways you can tell. For a start, keep an eye out
for anything in your house you don't remember buying. Then, if you spot something, check for anything suspicious, like a compartment a listening
device could be stored in. If you do find a listening device, first and foremost, call the cops. As if all this isn't creepy enough though, I'm afraid there's more, and it gets even worse. Because some stalkers aren't content with just listening to you
or tracking your location, they wanna see you too. And to do this, they
don't even need to buy their own nefarious devices, they can just use yours. Yep, it's now more common than ever for criminals to hack into webcams, security cameras or even baby
monitors to spy on people. But how? Well, so-called smart homes are becoming more and more popular, with all kinds of seemingly
innocent household devices getting interconnected
through the internet. Which is great if you're
not targeted by a hacker. If you are though, this means they only need to hack one
device to potentially get access to your entire home, your computer. Don't get me wrong, this isn't as easy as slipping an AirTag into your handbag, but it's still very possible. If a stalker has your e-mail address, they might try and phish you. This is basically where they claim they're from the company
you bought your baby monitor or CCTV system from and tell
you that you need to log in to answer a security
question or something. They'll provide a link,
and if you click it, you'll go through what
looks like the login page, but it's really their own fake version. So, when you type your details in, they'll be able to see what you type. From there, they can
simply use those details to log in to the account your
cameras are associated with and access the feed. Aside from this, they
could also email you a link containing malware. If you click it, it'll
download the malicious software to your computer and allow them to hijack your cameras whenever they like. However they do it, the outcome
will always be the same. Some weirdo watching you
when you least expect it. And sometimes, they'll even
broadcast your cam to others. Wait, what? Unfortunately, that's right. Back in 2014, Russian hackers posted thousands of hijacked cam feeds from all over the world
onto a dedicated website, so that other creeps could
have a weird viewing party. Man, this stuff is making me shudder just thinking about it. And because most of the time these attacks come from foreign countries, it can be super difficult
to actually catch any of the people responsible. There are a few things
to watch out for though. For a start, if you notice
your webcam light turn on when you're not using it, cover it up and run a virus scan. It could be a sign it's been hijacked. You should also check your computer for any strange looking files or applications you can't
remember installing. If a hacker has stolen footage
from any of your devices, they might've left behind
tell-tale files in the process. Equally, malicious camera hacking programs can usually be found by
a simple malware scan, so invest in some decent
anti-virus software. Simplest of all though, just avoid clicking any
links from email addresses that aren't in your contacts. Please. But what if I told
you there's one method criminals can use to both
stalk and steal from you that's so damn sneaky, there's no way of knowing
about it until it's too late? Well, there is. You might know that most new cars feature keyless ignition and entry, meaning instead of taking
an entire three seconds turning a key, you can hold the key nearby and it'll unlock for you. It works because these high-tech car keys send out short range signals that communicate with the car and tell it to unlock its doors. The problem is, those
signals can be intercepted. Yep, it's called relay theft, and criminals do it to
gain access to your car without having to break in
or ever even touch your keys. Wow. To do it, they need a couple of these strange looking devices,
they're called relay boxes and work by amplifying the
signal sent out by your keys. One thief will stand by your car and another outside your home, holding a relay box each. If the criminal by your house
is close enough to your keys, they'll pick up the signal, amplify it and send it over to the second relay box. This tricks the car into thinking the keys
are nearby, unlocking it. From here, they simply repeat the process to ignite the engine. Presto, you just lost your brand-new car. Clever, right? In a really messed up way, of course. Arguably even worse though is
the potential for this tech to be used for stalking. It would be supremely easy for scumbags to go through the relay process and instead of driving off with the car, hide in the back seat. They could even lock the car again after they've got inside. That way, when the owner
returns to their vehicle, they'd have no reason to
suspect anything was amiss until it's too late. Jeez. And as I said earlier, this isn't a case of leaving a
detectable device on your car unless you catch the criminal in the act, you won't be able to
see any trace of them. Despite this, there is
something you can buy that'll stop criminals
before they've even begun. It's called a faraday pouch. These handy cases house your keys and are coated with a metallic lining that blocks signals dead, making the relay boxes useless. Just remember to take
your keys out of the case before trying to open your car, alright? Phew! And with that, I
think we're just about done. I can't take any more terrifying tales. So, would you buy an AirTag, or do you think they're
more harm than good? And have you got any similar tech-related creepy stories to share? Let me know in the comments below. Stay safe, and thanks for watching. (gentle music)
