“Last month a Texas woman was chased in a car by a complete stranger. Fearing for her life, she went to the police and found out that her iPhone settings may have been the reason,” Andrew Orr reports for The Mac Observer.
“It all started when Becca Wilcox stopped at a convenience store in San Angelo on her journey. She said there was no one else in the store except the clerk, and only one other person was getting gas. After fueling up she traveled east on Highway 87 toward Eden. That’s when she realized that the man that was getting gas was following her,” Orr reports. “Then, Becca’s iPhone 7 rang. The voice on the other end said, ‘Becca? It’s Jason. I’m behind you. Pull over.'”
“With no idea how he knew her name, she hung up and accelerated. She called her two daughters and asked them to track her location via the iPhone’s GPS,” Orr reports. “After turning into a police station, the man turned and drove off. An AT&T representative said that Becca’s iPhone may have been hacked using AirDrop.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Wilcox’s iPhone was not “hacked,” of course, just set up to share with everyone via AirDrop. If here iPhone was named “Becca’s iPhone,” the stalked would know her name. How he go her phone number is the question? Looked up local “Beccas?”
Anyway, to change your AirDrop setting in iOS, go to Settings > General > AirDrop and choose “Receiving Off,” “Contacts Only,” or “Everyone” (which is how Wilcox’s iPhone was set during the incident, according to The Standard-Times.
Wouldn’t she be able to look on a detailed bill and get the number of the person who called her, unless he blocked it? And even then, couldn’t her carrier get the number? What’s the end of this story?
Before waiting for that bill, wouldn’t the number show up in “received calls” list?
Even so, just following/calling her isn’t against the law. But looks like she did the right thing and headed for the police.
Don’t you still have to accept the AirDrop? They can’t put a file there..
I turned AirDrop off a long time ago.
My phone’s “name” is “NSAsurv15”.
Can you call someone via FaceTime discovered through airdrop? Doesn’t airdrop function via your Apple ID/iCloud account? It might not have been a traditional cellular phone call but a FaceTime audio call.
Sure are a lot of f*ckers in this world.
And some of them are bad! 🙂
My phone has the settings for Airdrop set to Contacts only. I believe that was the default since I cannot remember changing the settings. This is consistent with Apple’s MO for security and privacy.
Wiki’s page for Airdrop has documented 2 incidents where women were sent nude pictures. In each case the setting was set to Everyone.
If the recipients # is being displayed when set to Everyone or files can be sent without the user first accepting it then Apple needs to change the protocol.
As a default, I never answer calls from #s I don’t recognize. 99/100 it will be spam calls. If it is important or urgent then they can leave a message.
AirDrop would explain the name on the phone, but not knowing her phone number. That doesn’t come up. And that the callback is a spoof number put this in the truly scary as **** category.
What happens if you Airdrop while Googling? Oh, the horror! /s
Thankfully it ended without tragedy, and there are lessons learned.
If it was named Becca’s Phone a Bluetooth scan (at the gas station) could have accomplished the same thing. Don’t name things after yourself.
That doesn’t explain how he got her number. Just her name.
Agree, but as MDN suggests, a search for local Beccas….
AT&T rep is full of crap
Since he knew her phone number, isn’t it more likely this person just knew her?
Of course. All the rest of the comments are ridiculous.