An Australian traveller to Bali has issued a warning after she discovered an AirTag had been placed in one of her bags without her knowledge.
Emily Sinclair had travelled to Bali with her partner Jane for the first time and noticed a strange noise coming from one of their bags.
Upon investigation, they found an Airtag made in Indonesia in a front pocket of Jane‘s backpack that wasn’t lockable.
“It gave us quite a fright!” Sinclair told 7NEWS.com.au.
“We took the battery out straight away and dismantled it and saw that the device was made in Indonesia, so we believe it was put in Jane’s bag at the airport on arrival.
“We are both very seasoned and careful travellers and have never had anything like this happen before, our bags never left our backs (backpacking style bags) and the main compartment of the bags were locked,” she said.
“The device was found in a front pocket of Jane’s backpack that isn’t able to be locked.”
Both Ms Sinclair and Jane are not Apple product users and had emptied their bags before packing for the trip. Concerned that their safety had been compromised, the couple cut their trip short and returned home early.
“So even though we had eight nights’ accommodation left in Amed, we took a taxi back to Kuta (three hours away) that day to be in a more populated area and (as) far away from the tracker as we possibly could (be),” she said.
“We were supposed to fly home to Australia on the April 1, but we paid to change our flights and flew in (Monday) morning as the whole situation kind of put a dampener on the whole holiday and on Bali for us, we couldn’t relax or feel safe,” she said.
“We had no idea why or how it got into Jane’s bag, but we felt that if somebody had gone to the trouble to put it there, they were intending to use it.”
Ms Sinclair took to a Facebook group for Australians travelling to Bali to share her warning.
It is recommended that if you find an Airtag tracking you or receive an alert on your iPhone that one is tracking you, you can follow Apple’s advice to disable it.
However, if you are concerned about the device or how it came to track you, report it to local police, but do not destroy it, as it can be used to help trace the person who owns it and used in evidence against them.