Apple customers have been receiving fraudulent calls falsely claiming to be from Apple.
The scammers are calling from an apparent “Apple” number, which seems legitimate, and pretend to be from customer services. It is reported that they will identify themselves correctly, before asking for some information from you. It is almost impossible to spot that the calls are actually coming from somewhere else entirely.
Journalist Brian Krebs reported scams are becoming so advanced that the CEO of a cyber security research firm, Jody Westby, was nearly fooled.
Ms Westby received a call, which appeared entirely to be from Apple according to information from her iPhone. The caller told her that multiple iCloud servers had been compromised, and that her data was no longer safe. For security, Ms Westby was asked to ring another number and confirm her details. Luckily, Ms Westby didn’t do that, and instead contacted Apple who confirmed this was not a legitimate call.
The number is run by scammers who would ask for details such as logins which they could then use to break into iCloud accounts, or possibly even transfer money.
Like many of the world’s largest companies, Apple has repeatedly been targeted by scams. Users will often receive scam emails, which look entirely like official messages, that send your data off to the hackers simply by clicking through the message.
Attacks like this have been becoming increasingly advanced, and appear to be getting more detailed and believable. Such phone scams are almost entirely impossible to distinguish from a legitimate call, making them very difficult to deal with, and so it is crucial to be sure who you are speaking to before exposing any of your data. We recommending verifying the company/provider calling you – e.g. for account specific information that they should know, which you have not given to them on the current call.