An alleged text message from Apple
On Saturday, a friend of mine received a text message allegedly from Apple, to tell her that her “iapple account has been frozen”, and instructing her to visit a website – via clicking on a link – to validate her account. Needless to say (because you’re reading about it on this website), it was a scam. And happily, she didn’t fall for it.
Receiving this text was the perfect example of how criminals rely on opportunism and timing to successfully perpetrate their scams. As it happens, the previous day she’d set up two-step verification for her iCloud account and had a couple of user issues which left her wondering whether she’d completed the process correctly. Then, the next morning, she received this message. She did actually click on the link and was taken to a really authentic-looking web page, which requested that she entered her Apple login details to continue the verification process. That’s when the alarm bells rang.
Web page replaced by warning page
By the time my friend had told me about this and forwarded the screenshot of the text that you see on this page, the web page that had requested her personal details had been replaced by a warning page from APWG – a US public education initiative on internet safety.
The point I’m making is that for the unsuspecting member of the public or business, it would be so easy to be duped by a text or email that’s about what you’re doing at the time, like: one from Amazon when you’re expecting a package, or from HMRC when you’re talking to your accountant abut a tax refund.
Think twice – would that REALLY happen?
And whatever you do … stay safe!
