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DON’T BE A VICTIM: Local Authorities Are Warning About Apple Support Scam

Posted on by digital
26
Oct

Apple “tech support” scams are far from new. However, they also don’t appear to be slowing down — and scammers are increasingly using greater advanced techniques.

This week, the Oklahoma City Police Department warned local residents on Facebook of a highly well-known Apple tech support rip-off that you have to be conscious of.

How It Works

  1. The call tells Apple users that there’s been “suspicious activity” on their iCloud accounts.
  2. It then asked them to press 1 to talk to an “Apple Support advisor.”
  3. These types of scam calls are phishing attempts. In other words, if the text-to-speech robocall actually “hooks” a user and they press 1, an actual person will attempt to get that user’s Apple ID and login credentials.

To add authenticity to the calls, the scammers in the Oklahoma City location are reportedly spoofing certain Apple numbers. If a call recipient tries to call the numbers back, it’ll go to a nearby Apple Store.

This isn’t the first time this kind of scam has surfaced. It’s additionally now not the first time that we’ve considered scammers spoof real Apple smartphone numbers.

And phone calls aren’t the sole method that scammers will use to attempt and phish your personal information. Email and text message scams are as common these days as traditional robocalls and tech support scam calls.

How to Avoid Being Scammed

The easiest way to keep away from getting phished is to be aware that:
Apple in no way makes unsolicited calls to ask for login or personal information.

If you receive a call from “Apple” — or any enterprise — asking for any type of sensitive information, it’s always a scam. Hang up.

If you suspect that something is wrong with your Apple or iCloud account, contact Apple directly (and solely via an established medium).

If you aren’t on iOS 13, there are a number of carrier-based and third-party anti-robocall apps that can also block out these unwanted calls.

Additionally, you can report a scammer to Apple or to local authorities.

For users running iOS 13, Apple has additionally implemented an unknown number blocking feature that can go a long way toward stopping these rip-off calls.

For more details visit Fix My Gadget.

Source: http://bit.ly/2XSGFH8
Credit to: Mike Peterson

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