Systems and methods for location-aware scanning of an IoT beacon by a mobile device, and the authentication of the mobile device, are disclosed herein. The system detects when the mobile device is within a geofenced region associated with the IoT beacon and enables the scanning by the mobile device for signals from the beacon. Using the beacon signals received by the mobile device, the system detects when the mobile device and IoT beacon are sufficiently near one another. Once the mobile device and IoT beacon are sufficiently near each other, the system authenticates control of the mobile device over the IoT beacon by verifying an authentication key transmitted to a server.