Identifying Phishing Scams in text messages

Heaven11-1 wrote:

What if I stupidly gave them my first and last name but then hung up

That's information that's publicly available. It's not something I'd worry about. If you had given them log-in information, your Social Security number, date of birth, passcodes to anything or had allowed them remote access to your computer, then you would have reason to be concerned.

25th Floor wrote:

…The text was posted from “gon**************20@icloud.com”. I hope this does not mean they have hacked the iCloud email of someone…

Scams are illicit businesses, and harvesting insecure servers and insecure accounts is part of that.

One of the more common ways to gain account access is password re-use. One leak from some service somewhere, and the email and password is tried everywhere.

To see (some of) the breached services that have leaked your email and password, visit:

https://haveibeenpwned.com

Phishing works well for gaining account credentials, too. There’s been some well-crafted AT&T “price increase” phishing ongoing.

Some few of many schemes:

Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

My text said payment was made with Apple Pay to Apple Store and I think mine said $185. (I deleted the text very quickly). And said, if you did not make this payment, call this number (they had a phone number). I checked my bank account and no charge was there, and it would have shown up pretty quickly with Apply Pay.

IdrisSeabright wrote:

jonzoog wrote:

I got the same message. 10 minutes after I made a purchase on the Apple Store. Had all the other people on this thread recently made a purchase? It seems like too much of a coincidence.

It's a coincidence. I have made lots of purchases from Apple and never received one. On the other hand, I get lots of the EZPass balance scam messages.

Got my first-ever EZ Pass scam message this week. A whole barrage of them followed. Different wording. Different links. Different sources. Same scam. Sigh.

The Apple Store scam spam from this thread has been infrequent.

Bouncer app can be helpful for text spam.

SpamSieve app can be helpful for email spam, if a Mac is available.

Phone and SMS are increasingly set to contacts-only locally though, given the volume of spam calls and spam texts. The Apple features Focus and Do Not Disturb are helpful here.

Hello~ Yes…it’s a scam.

Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

~Katana-San~

Lawrence Finch wrote:

…

You have joined the hundreds of millions of users around the world who get scams like this daily.

Yep.

And the scammers are only going to get better at collecting contact info, and at scamming.

If any here have important accounts without two-factor, go enable that, mute unknown senders, etc.

Hepzi wrote:

Please please make it easier to get Apple support for fraudulent activity!! It is an amazing baffle to get support at all thru Apple. And if Apple wants to stay in quasi banking business, you really need to up your game on fraudulent activity support. Amazing naivety and stupidity on Apples part….

Apple can’t do anything to stop phishing scams. Neither can Google, AOL, Yahoo, CenturyLink or any other email and text service. At last count, 60% of ALL email is scams of some kind, and text scams are getting up there.

One thing you can do is go to Settings/Apps/Messages/Unknown & Spam and turn on Filter Unknown Senders.

You can also add a 3rd party scam filter such as NoMoRobo or NumberShield.

What Apple can do is tell you how to recognize scams→Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams

Another great source is AARP’s Fraud Watch Network: https://aarp.org/fwn, which is available to anyone whether an AARP member or not.

25th Floor wrote:

I hope that adding to this thread heightens the awareness of Apple to this ongoing scam.

Apple is well aware of this and thousands of other scams, but there is nothing Apple can do because most of the scams originate from other countries (Myanmar, in particular).

The real issue is that anyone who uses the internet needs to be aware and alert to scams like this.

MrHoffman posted a link to Apple’s guide to scams.

Here’s another useful link: https://aarp.org/fwn, AARP’s fraud watch network tracking site; but you don’t have to be old to use the information in it.

Another site to follow is: https://krebsonsecurity.com/. Brian Krebs tracks scammers around the world.

For a more technical discussion of vulnerabilities there is Bruce Schneier’s Schneier On Security: https://www.schneier.com/

Uterpio26 wrote:

I just got the same text message with the same amount and said if not my charge to call ***-***-**** Very glad to see others have received the same so i know it is a scam.

You are one of only around 100 million people who have received this or similar scams. You have not been singled out. And please, NEVER include any phone number or link information in a post in this public forum. Even when its a scam, because someone view the thread might try to call the number.

Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams

Me Too - first checked my apply card and no charges on it - then logged into my apple account to check charge history - the give away was the from phone number was from the Philippines (+64) - but the website in the test was legit - never called the provided phone number because that would give them a legit calling number for me - boy they are getting good

SuzyQ4762 wrote:

I just got a text Apple alert recently use Apple Store for 154.95 and there is a phone number to call .

It is a scam. Do not call the number. Report the text as junk.

xusmico wrote:

received a text at 1645 last night.

from 81961

you can now rest your apple password at (hyperlink in blue and underlined) apple.com/recover

Post a screenshot of the text message, please. Take a screenshot on iPhone - Apple Support

If you’re unable or unwilling to post a screenshot here, is the text of the SMS message: “You can now reset your Apple ID password at apple.com/recover Be sure to do this before {month}/{day}”, or maybe “You can now reset your Apple Account password at apple.com/recover Be sure to do this before {month}/{day}”, or similar?

This might well be a scam, or it might be a mistake, or it might be an account takeover attempt.

Or it might be entirely legitimate, depending on the text of the SMS message, as it might be a recovery contact request by someone that used you as their recovery contact.

Scam would be the usual assumption, and — if this is the usual scam — the scammers will probably send a few more more messages over the next days, culminating in a message with a message containing a not-actually-Apple telephone number for “Apple Support” that they want you to call. That’s (obviously) a scam.

What this is trying to look like: How to use account recovery when you can’t reset your Apple Account password - Apple Support

What to do:

I’d immediately change your Apple Account password to a new and unique and robust password, in an abundance of caution.

Is your Apple Account configured for two-factor authentication? If not, go enable that right now, too.

Otherwise, ignore it.

PS: Password re-use is doom. A list if some of the services where your passwords may have been or were compromised:

• https://haveibeenpwned.com/

I just received a similar text but the amount is for 715.49. This is the text message:

Transaction Declined! We noticed your "AppleID" was used at an AppleStore for $715.49. We detected suspicious activites, call +1 80***347 to avoid charges.

I have not clicked or called. I called the number on a land line and it was answered by a person stating "Tech Support." I hung up.

It was sent by a phone +1 2***092.

Agnes

Chicago IL

[Edited by Moderator]

Beverly1043 wrote:

I just received a similar text but the amount is for 715.49…\

Millions of these scam messages are sent.

…I have not clicked or called. I called the number on a land line and it was answered by a person stating "Tech Support." I hung up.

You’ll get more scams and more spams having called, unfortunately.

Phone numbers used in this scams will vary.

Sending numbers will vary.

Claimed (fraudulent) amounts will vary.

Payment card fraud procedures do not work at all like this scam claims, either.

This and similar scams will continue to arrive for years, if not decades.

Tap the “report junk” icon, and move on with your day.

There’s no “Lartrn app” in the local app store, or in a web search, either.

You can also check your Apple Account billing information, too.