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I got the phishing email that said my Apple ID was locked. Is this because of a virus? Do I need to take any further action?

A web search suggested this email was generated from malware, and , of course, offered a service to scan for viruses. Is this true, and do I need to be worried?

Posted on Dec 5, 2019 7:53 AM

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Posted on Dec 5, 2019 7:56 AM

You don't need to be worried. That seems to be a scam/phishing email and they don't have a way to infect your computer/device.


Send the e-mail to Apple as an attachment to a new e-mail before deleting it. You can forward as an attachment by going to Mail/Message/Forward as attachment. Or control - click on the email and select Forward as attachment. Make sure you send it as an attachment to a new email. If you just forward it, it will probably be rejected. You won’t receive a response.


reportphishing@apple.com

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 5, 2019 7:56 AM in response to tsldvm

You don't need to be worried. That seems to be a scam/phishing email and they don't have a way to infect your computer/device.


Send the e-mail to Apple as an attachment to a new e-mail before deleting it. You can forward as an attachment by going to Mail/Message/Forward as attachment. Or control - click on the email and select Forward as attachment. Make sure you send it as an attachment to a new email. If you just forward it, it will probably be rejected. You won’t receive a response.


reportphishing@apple.com

Dec 5, 2019 8:05 AM in response to tsldvm

It does not indicate a virus. It just means some scammer has your email address in their list of emails. Even people who don’t own any Apple devices nor have an AppleID will sometimes get these mass emailed scam messages. Just as Mac users get emails about virus infections for viruses that only infect Windows operating systems.


Scammers just mass email every single valid email address they can get their hands on. It’s a numbers game - send out many millions of such messages (cheap to do) and a handful of successful clicks is enough to make the effort pay off. But they don’t care who they are sending to, nor know thing one about any of them.

I got the phishing email that said my Apple ID was locked. Is this because of a virus? Do I need to take any further action?

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