In a hoax that’s been spreading around TikTok as of late (the source of the rumor is unclear), viral videos are now saying that hackers can use the iPhone’s AirDrop feature to steal your credit card information from your Apple Wallet. The news was first reported on by The Daily Dot, which to its credit, quickly called it out for the nonsense it is.
Fortunately, neither are correct.
Can people steal information through AirDrop?
Instead, the rumors seem to be a repackaging of earlier concerns over the iPhone’s NameDrop functionality, which allows two iPhones to share contact information just by coming into close proximity. Even law enforcement got in on the fearmongering here, but tech experts were quick to point out that the feature requires extremely close physical proximity and consent on both ends. In actuality, most concluded that it doesn’t pose much of a risk.
First, there is no “search with other iPhones” setting to disable. Speaking generously, the influencer might be referring to the “Bringing Devices Together” setting that got added with NameDrop, or the ability to set your AirDrop permissions to receive requests from everyone for 10 minutes.
Second, AirDrop can’t interact with Apple Wallet. The feature can only share files accessible via the iPhone’s file browser, which isn’t where Apple Wallet stores information. And even if it were, Apple Wallet doesn’t actually have your credit card information—it uses a “Device Account Number” generated by your bank or card provider, which gets encrypted along with everything else in your wallet and is very hard to do anything with unless you have the iPhone it's tied to. According to Apple, “your card number is never stored on your device or on Apple servers.”
Can people steal your Apple Pay transactions through tap-to-pay?
So, yes, this recent warning is a hoax. AirDrop can’t do anything with your payment information, and it’ll take a hacker a bit more diligence to take money from your Apple Pay than just walking by you with an iPhone in their pocket. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn't be vigilant.
The first is to take advantage of stressed-out buyers by overcharging them. As also reported by The Daily Dot, if you’ve already approved a transaction by double tapping into your Apple wallet and authenticating the payment (via FaceID, TouchID, or your PIN), but haven’t yet seen the seller’s screen, they could charge you whatever they like by simply tapping their phone to yours without confirming the sale with you first. In one case, a woman was charged $975 for what she thought would be a $10 box of chocolates because she was already preparing to use Apple Pay before seeing the scammer’s seller screen and how much they were actually going to charge her. Always ensure you see a charge before activating Apple Pay, rather than relying on whatever the seller says the charge will be.
Again, there are legitimate threats to watch out for here, and it’s a good idea to exercise caution. But allowing panic-spreading social media posts to whip you into a worried frenzy just makes it harder to keep track of the real risks out there, and may make you miss out on the real benefits that come with encryption-focused payment methods like tap-to-pay.
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