I received an email from appleid@id.apple.com requesting that I verify my Apple ID and password. Is it legitmate?

My ATT password was stolen by none other than the Russians! dima9pkarpov@mail.ru. How did I get that email addy? Instagram sent it to me telling me my account email had been changed. From that point, there have been a series of disturbing incidents, and I have become quite the paranoid individual. I don't know who to trust with what. The first thing I did was change my password while speaking with a Uverse customer service rep. I did that Sunday night, Monday, twice on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday was told I should work through Apple. I went to the Apple store on Thursday, and they assured me my Apple iPad and iPhone were fine. They then opened a case for me, and I received a call from Courtney, who was a great assist. I had Norton remote in to run a two-hour scan to tell me I was virus free. I thereafter hired a company owned by someone I know to remote connect on my home PC (Dell) in order for me to access my Microsoft Word and email accounts. The hackers had managed to change all of my server information! By 5:00 PM on Saturday, I was relatively certain I had slain the dragon.

BUT WAIT!

Last night on my iPad, I received a message that American Express had removed my credit card from my Apple Wallet and that I should call American Express. However, on Thursday, working with an Apple iOS Senior Advisor, I changed my credit card based on the fact that I was certain the card on file had been compromised. After having cancelled my credit card at 5:30 that morning with AmEx and requesting replacement, I then worked with Courtney (Apple) to link another AmEx account to my Apple account. Upon receipt of this notice last night, I promptly called AmEx, and they can find nothing legitimizing the removal of my AmEx card. They referred me to Apple.

I have once again placed a call to Courtney (Apple) and am awaiting a callback sometime today.

I'm having a difficult time changing my same phone too a new number. Every time I try to surpass the two step verification code. Apple will only text the code to my old number. I've deleted the old and entered the new number everywhere I can think of, but the two step won't change. Could someone explain to me how to change to my new number? Thank you.

Well I got an iTunes receipt for the Music service with an inbuilt link to cancel the subscription if I didn't want it! The site it sent me to was at this link https://secure.appleid-apple.com-verifications.de/ and the site requested I login - sure looked like the applied site. Well I did and then realized it might be a scam as I noticed the .de (Germany?) suffix.

Logged into my id via the real address I normally use and changed my password immediately. So right now I am not sure if this email was from apple or a scam - and if I have actually inadvertently purchased a subscription I dont want or need - but at least my id is secure once again behind protective questions

It's a scam - we see this sort of thing all the time: I had a similar one, sent to an address which isn't my Apple ID. You can always check the status of your purchases in your account in iTunes. You were right to change your password, otherwise you would have been compromised.

I received an email from appstore173@applecontact.info, saying that I had signed into iCloud (which I don't have) from Indonesia (I don't live in Indonesia).

There was a link in the email to "account page", which I clicked on. It went to a very convincing looking Apple ID page. I entered my username and the wrong password. It said my account had been locked, then had a link to "unlock account".

I clicked on that and it went to a page asking for personal details, bank details, security questions (some of which were in poor English). The page was very convincing, but I was suspicious as the links at the top to things like Apple Music, Mac, iPhone etc. didn't work.

I updated my Apple details from the actual Apple website, and forwarded this suspicious email to reportphishing@apple.com. If you're unsure of any emails, login to Apple from their real website and update your details, and forward the suspicious email to them.

I received an email from do_not_reply@appIeid-apple-support.8vax98a9518zv8ab891858zb98a8gaagx.mail.live.c om

telling me that somebody change my billing address: it looks very real ?!?

Name changed to Tyler Baker Billing Address If you did not make these changes or you believe an unauthorized person has accessed your account, you should change your password as soon as possible from your Apple ID account page at https://appleid.apple.com. Apple Support

I also receive a phishing email from these AppleID yahoos almost daily in one form or another, always wanting me to sign in and verify my password. First, I forward a copy of the email to Apple's phishing department with some comment about how their brand is being tarnished by their inability to stop these scams. Then I select the phishing option on my junk button in outlook and supposedly it reports it to the email gods of some unknown origin. I'm from the south and don't appreciate someone continually messing with me. I would do more if I could.

Good luck and be careful.

i too got one last night but though to my iphone text message instead - see screenshot attached, so got suspicious about it. never heard of that site before.

That email is only sent when you've made a change to your Apple ID on the Apple site. If you did not, I would not respond, but rather check your account on the Apple ID site to make sure everything is OK. There is a disclaimer there that says something about these emails and if you got them possibly by accident. Worth checking.

... Is it legitmate?

NO. This is a scam.

Apple will send emails requesting verification only in response to a request you made.

Identifying legitimate emails from the iTunes Store

Never click on a link sent to you in an email. To manage your Apple ID navigate on your own to this URL, nothing else:

https://appleid.apple.com/

What is the email's content? Copy and paste it here but omit any personal information.

More from Apple:

Identifying fraudulent "phishing" email

Hi John,

You might be wrong from what an rep just told me. I bought an itunes song today (first time in a couple months) and itunes prompted me to pick 3 security questions and answers and provide a backup rescue email. I did so becuase I couldn't choose not to. Got my song. Got an email in my backup email account (good thing I had one, some people don't) addressed to not my name but just Thank You and it wanted me to click on a link highlighted VERIFY NOW. I copied the link info into Textedit and it said //id.apple.com then slash cgi-bin and a bunch of characters - jargon, you know code.

Your message above said it was a scam, and to go to appleid.apple.com and I went there and there was nothing available about verifying a rescue email so I thought, aha! a good phishing scam tucked inside itunes almost got me!

So, I called apple and got bumped up the chain a couple times(after first rep said it was a phishing attempt) and then higher up support said the rescue email and 3 questions are legit and they do own id.apple.com.

I told them I had spotted a message (yours) in discussion forum that said otherwise and prompted me to call and they said they would try and post something or other but I thought I would throw this out tonight. The way that email to my backup account didn't refer to me by name (just Thank You,) and then told me they want me to enter my password again just sounded phishy! I hate it when websites add to their URLS with dots as I don't know the structure of whether someone else can buy a similar one easy and run a scam.

So, am I still confused ?(honest question) and are you now right or wrong? I don't feel like trusting just one apple rep since seeing your message and hearing the first rep I talked to agree it was a phishing attempt.

Message was edited by: macminibruce

... So, am I still confused ?(honest question) and are you now right or wrong?

Thanks for asking. There is not enough information in the OP to be completely certain, but if you (or someone else) did not make a request to reset your password then Apple will not send this. There is additional information in the body of the email that explains the reason it was sent, which is the reason I requested it.

The domain is correct as you said, but it is a trivial matter to spoof the apparent "from" address in an scam attempt. You were right to navigate on your own using the correct URL to manage your account. Any links within the body of an email ought to be regarded with suspicion, much more so if you had no reason to expect the email to be sent.

If Apple really sent the email, but you did not make such a request, the reasons can range from innocuous to less so. Someone with a similar Apple ID who merely mistyped it erroneously and entered a non-matching password too many times will cause it, as will someone repeatedly trying, and failing, to guess your password.

So, lacking sufficient information to the contrary, assume it is a scam. If you navigated on you own to the correct URL, logged in with your usual name and password, and were able to manage your account, then all is well and you can disregard the email, and you can use your existing password as long as you want. It's a good idea to use a non-trivial password (Apple makes us do that anyway) and to change it once in a while.

NO

I got the same email... And a subsequent email stating that details on my email associated with the apple ID has been updated...

I don't know what is going on from Apple's side, but I've changed my password even though I still feel insecure about this.

If it's a case of hacks onto Apple IDs, that makes iCloud and indeed the current OS X Mountain Lion deemed unsafe for paranoid freaks like me... This is one big wrong move on Apple's part in trying to universalised everything they do.

I'd prefer the old fashion way of getting things done...