Identifying Phishing Scams in text messages

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….

Anybody that claims to offer scam-prevention services is quite possibly scamming you, and anybody claiming to help you recover money lost in a previous scam is likely scamming you.

And if you did get scammed, ~nobody will offer a refund, as that would result in fake scams scamming for refunds.

As mentioned, silence unknown texts, and/or use an app such as Bouncer to reduce the chatter.

Sending telephone numbers, sending text numbers, and sending email addresses can all be faked, too. This arising from the same reason why blocking scam-related numbers and services that claim to block those numbers doesn’t work.

If you can figure out a why how to reduce these scams, do let everybody know.

And no, licenses and submitting identify proof won’t work, and will backfire. It results in zillions of systems with sensitive info everywhere; a phisher’s dream situation. Yes, it’s been tried.

I got the same as well and I did not click on anything. It came from email address: ro*******ie@hotmail.com

_____________________

Apple Approval Notice

We have noticed that your Apple iCloud id was recently used at "APPLE STORE - CA" for $143.95, paid by Apple Pay Pre Authorization. Also some suspicious sign in request and apple pay activation request detected. That looks like suspicious to us. In order to maintain the security and privacy of your account we have placed those request on hold. Your Photos, Data, Bank Information and Cards are at risk. If NOT you? talk to an Apple Representative. Failing may lead to auto debit and charge will not be reversed. Call +1 8********7 immediately to cancel this charge.

Billing Department:Subscriptions and Billing - Official Apple Support

Have a great day!

[Edited by Moderator]

Kriistiina89 wrote:

Has anyone else got these before? Please HELP!!!!!!!

Have others received this? Yes. This is a common scam.

Welcome to the ever-increasing group of people —there are ~thirteen pages of people here in this thread — that have received this same scam message.

Here, the scammers are lying, By lying, I mean, they’re straight up lying to you, lying to get the exact reaction you had, lying to get your money, lying to get you concerned, and, well, lying.

In short, scam.

Ignore it.

Maybe mute all unknown message senders if you want, so they don’t distrust your day.

Here are a very few of the many other common scams: Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

And “grate day”? 😜

I got the exact same message. Freaked me out b/c I actually did make a purchase in the Apple Store yesterday.

I suspect that was just coincidental, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious.

This is a text message I received. I checked my credit card account and there was no such charge. I sent an email to reportphishing@apple.com along with the screenshot. I then blocked and deleted the #.

[Edited by Moderator]

BenzJamin129 wrote:

I received the same yesterday…

These scams will be circulating for the foreseeable future; until enough folks stop falling for the scams.

Saegzz wrote:

This thread is a year old. Should I read all the comments?

Only for the humor😏

It’s also because someone reading the post might stupidly call the number.

After using a rental car with more tech options than I am familiar with I too received the same text today. 50/50 could be a scam but could also be legit as I just parked the rental car and had been using car play and thought maybe it was something I had to pay for. Called Apple Support vs numbers in scam text. Just a coincidence. Now I know about that scam too. I will add this to all the others.

@ everybody responding.

Please do not post images with the telephone numbers and other contact information, or include your email address at the top of images. To prevent the harvesting of your email address by yet more spammers, and to prevent general distribution of fake "support" numbers, I had to report two posts for editing.

Just got this text today. Glad I came here to check to see if it’s a scam.

Apple Approval Notice

We have noticed that your Apple iCloud id was recently used at \"APPLE STORE - CA\" for $143.95, paid by Apple Pay Pre Authorization. Also some suspicious sign in request and apple pay activation request detected. That looks like suspicious to us. In order to maintain the security and privacy of your account we have placed those request on hold.  If NOT you? talk to an Apple Representative. Failing may lead to auto debit and charge will not be reversed. Call +1 866325xxxx immediately to cancel this charge.

Billing Department

Have a great day!

[Edited by Moderator]

try2guess wrote:

I looked up the number that was left for me to call back – 855–775–****–support.apple.com/billing in the amount one 143.95. I turned off my phone setting to not show my Caller ID and when I called that number it rang about 10 times and then a male answered with “Apple Support” and the line was very noisy. I just said sorry I called the wrong number and hung up so I never did click on the link or anything because I have become super suspicious of emails like this.

It's a scam. Delete it and move on.

try2guess wrote:

I looked up the number that was left for me to call back – 855–775–****

For future reference: When you can a toll-free number they will always see your caller ID, even if you block it.

JNK1984 wrote:

I just received the same text of a charge of $143.95!

DON’T fall for the scam!!!

Yes, you and several hundred million other users, on iPhone, Android Macs and Windows have received it. And you posted good advice. NEVER click a link in an email, even if you think you know the sender; email addresses are very easy to forge.