Apple AirTag Used to Trace and Outsmart a Scammer [VIDEO]

Summary:

• YouTuber Pleasant Green recently used an AirTag to expose how foreign scammers move money out of the U.S. after tricking their victims
• Scammers use “money mules” to pick up cash in the U.S. and convert it into cryptocurrency to move it elsewhere
• AirTags have previously been used to track missing luggage, recover stolen cars, and more

In a recently published video, YouTuber Ben “Pleasant Green” Taylor used an Apple AirTag to expose how foreign scammers move money out of the U.S. after tricking their victims to send them cash.

Green is known for going after scammers, exposing them, and playing tricks on them on his channel. With recent restrictions on international money transfers online, scammers have had to get a bit more clever with how they get their prey to pay up.

One of the most prevalent methods of moving money among scammers right now involves “money mules” who are physically located in the U.S., can collect cash from victims, and move the money out of the country by exchanging it for cryptocurrency — all for a small cut of the spoils.

Scammers who don’t have money mules of their own often rent one from their fellow bad actors. To demonstrate how all of that works, Taylor linked up with an Indian scammer offering cash pickup services for fellow scammers and asked an ex-scammer-turned-associate in India to help him out.

Taylor’s associate posed as the scammer looking for someone to do a cash pickup, while the YouTuber played the “customer” (the victim of the scam). He put $18,500 USD in fake currency inside a magazine, stashed an AirTag inside the package, and mailed it to the money mule.

Thanks to the AirTag, Taylor was able to track the package every step of the way. AirTags are tiny devices (only slightly larger than a Toonie in diameter) that are designed to help users keep track of their belongings by leveraging Apple’s Find My network, which comprises more than one billion devices globally. AirTags only cost $39 a pop or as low as $32.25 for a pack of four.

Apple’s AirTags have been instrumental in securing people’s belongings and giving them increased control over them. They have been for everything from holding airlines accountable for missing luggage to recovering stolen cars. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency even tried using AirTags to track suspicious packages.

A couple of days later, the scammer picked up Taylor’s fake cash. Check out what happened next in the full video below: