AirTags and Find My revealed a scam involving items donated by Mexicans for earthquake relief in Turkey, which were ultimately sold in markets in Mexico City.
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In February, Apple’s AirTags were used to expose how the Singapore government received sneakers for recycling when they were actually resold, contrary to their stated use. In Mexico, journalist Pamela Cerdeira used AirTags to demonstrate how the government mismanaged earthquake relief donations
The purpose of the donations was to help Turkey recover from the devastating earthquakes it suffered. Cerdeira sent two items with AirTags to check if they had reached Turkey.
AirTags are small, coin-shaped devices that use Bluetooth technology to communicate with your iPhone or iPad . Setting up the device is easy, and once it's connected, you can attach an AirTag to your keys, backpack, or any other important item. Once you've placed the item, you can use the Find My app on your device to locate the AirTag.
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Cerdeira sent rice and a package of toilet rolls to the address listed by the recipient, but unfortunately the package was never delivered to its destination and is still in Mexico.
Cerdeira used the Find My app to track the progress of her items, only to realize that both had actually been sent to different markets across the city.
“I couldn't find the rice package, but I found the toilet rolls. “
Cerdeira has documented the case in a Spanish-language YouTube video titled “The Business of Tragedy: The Donations That Never Reach Turkey.”
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Official Oscar Gutierrez Camacho told Cerdeira that the government had nothing to do with the items that deviate from the rules and are resold. “We have nothing to do with these [markets], but [we will] gladly investigate,” he said.
