How to identify a fake Apple Email

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Level 1

31 points

How to identify a fake Apple Email

Today I received an email purporting to be from Apple. It contained a link to a (pdf?) that supposedly detailed my purchase. I did not open the link. I have made no purchase. I am pasting in the email text below. Is this a fake or Phishing email, or what?

From: Apple Purchase Receipt #MNWBH8BBHD <intl-purchased.accedsid13@noreplybillities.com>
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2018 2:29 PM
To: appleid@id.apple.com
Subject: [ Receipt ] - Thank you For Purchasing in App Store.

Thank you For Purchasing in App Store.

Detail of your order:

LINE Manga, 360 Manga Coin

Price: $19.99

Total: $19.99

You can check detail of your order by opening PDF file.

Sincerely,

App Store.

The link was to a file "Apple-Receipt_Purcha..."

[Re-Titled by Host]

Posted on Jan 12, 2018 2:21 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

stedman1

Community+ 2024

Level 10

256,446 points

Jan 12, 2018 2:22 PM in response to ccr670

It is a phishing attempt.

Avoid phishing emails, fake 'virus' alerts, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

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Answer 2

ccr670 Author

Level 1

31 points

Jan 12, 2018 2:50 PM in response to stedman1

Thank you. As I said, I did not click on the link and the email itself did not ask me for any information, so I was not certain whether Phishing was involved. I did log in to iTunes and it said nothing was purchased in the last 6 months. Does that also mean that no iPhone apps were purchased? I know that my wife has "purchased" some free apps and MAY have actually purchased some cheap apps for my grandchild. Do they come from the iTunes store or some other Apple site? If a different Apple site, please reply with whatever url to that web site so that I can login and check app purchases.

Thanks in advance!

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Answer 3

ccr670 Author

Level 1

31 points

Jan 12, 2018 3:18 PM in response to stedman1

I did log in to iTunes and it said nothing was purchased in the last 6 months. Does that also mean that no iPhone apps were purchased? I know that my wife has "purchased" some free apps and MAY have actually purchased some cheap apps for my grandchild. Do they come from the iTunes store or some other Apple site? If a different Apple site, please reply with whatever url to that web site so that I can login and check app purchases.

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Answer 4

Jan 12, 2018 3:29 PM in response to ccr670

You can log in to http://reportaproblem.apple.com to verify any purchases made on your account within the last 90 days.

Unless your Wife uses the same Apple ID for purchases (which she should not be), they would not appear under your account.

Beyond that, yes that email is completely fake. Apple will never ever send a PDF, has a nice template for the purchase receipts from the iTunes and App Stores. And a receipt for a purchase will come from no_reply@email.apple.com always.

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Answer 5

Jan 12, 2018 2:55 PM in response to ccr670

The email message is not from Apple. It is in no way an indication that something was purchased. Use the info in the Apple support article to forward the email to Apple, then delete it.

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Answer 6

Jan 12, 2018 11:36 PM in response to ccr670

I did receive the same e-mail with the pdf file attached. Of course, I didn't open up the link considering it could be a trap.

Keep the eyes wide open with such e-mails,

See you

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