Identifying Phishing Scams in text messages

Oceans47 wrote:

this world is in a mess.

And always has been. Look up Teapot Dome if you never studied it. Or the Panama scam (The Darien Scheme) that bankrupted Scotland in 1690. Or the original Ponzi Scheme of 1869, named for its creator, Charles Ponzi. Or the modern day repeat by Bernard Madoff. The phishing scams discussed in this thread are small potatoes. Go research the current “Pig butchering” scams that can cost victims from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

IdrisSeabright wrote:

It's even harder with these digital criminals because they are frequently in other countries.

If I remember correctly, an old AT&T advertising slogan was "Reach out and touch someone." It appears that the criminals were listening – but not in a good way.

Servant of Cats wrote:

IdrisSeabright wrote:

It's even harder with these digital criminals because they are frequently in other countries.

If I remember correctly, an old AT&T advertising slogan was "Reach out and touch someone." It appears that the criminals were listening – but not in a good way.

Indeed!

I read an article recently about someone who tried to find the source of the EZ Pass scam messages. He found over 100,000 sites that were running the scams.

https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/unpaid-toll-scam-text-message-dmv-penndot-ezpass/

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.

Hello~ Posting the scammers credentials here only perpetuates their scam. Delete it and move on. Click on below…

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

~Katana-San~

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

Uterpio26 wrote:

I just got the same text message with the same amount and said if not my charge to call 8**-***-***. Very glad to see others have received the same so i know it is a scam.

Scams are automated, with programs used to send out these mail messages and these text messages.

Probably billions of these messages, each day.

Programs that can receive and process replies made to these various scam.campaigns, too.

While there is nothing personal about anyone sending out hundreds of thousands and millions of scam messages, some of these scams are better than others, and some are more personalized than others. The AT&T scams are quite well done, for instance.

With each data leak and with the people correlating and collating that leaked data, the ability to better personalize these scams improves, too.

Some small percentage of people will fall for these scams, and that means the rest of us keep getting spammed.

And yes, re-posting the scammers’ contact info can have two bad results: the scammers get more contacts, and a legitimate subscriber for the compromised number can get barraged with calls. Or the included number or the email might not be compromised. Some scammers will send out mail messages or text messages with somebody else’s contact info too, all intended to get thousands of irate replies aimed at the target of the spam campaign, somebody the scammer wants to harass.

SO thankful for this thread! I just got the same and I too thankful that you put in that amount$ because that was the same exact amount in my text. My concern is., I used my Apple ID to sign into a website to purchase a service. And within an hour after that, I got this text.. so I think I should probably change my Apple code i use on my phone?

Thank God for this community! I freaked out when I saw the exact same message in my text message on my cell phone. Also, the amount was the same amount you stated, "143.95." These guys are total scum.

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I got a text message saying this, I didn’t call because I have been scammed before!

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To me it is painful even reading the terrible grammar in that image. ;-)

P.S. That is 3 posts I have now had to report for editing. Eventually I'll tire of reporting them and you have only yourselves to blame if a spammer reads this web site and gets your email address and sends you yet more junk mail.

there was a fraud charge made from a company for that amount. Scammers called from the Apple Fraud number by spoofing it to look real. I had my husband call the number and they said it was a scam and change my password immediately. They were attempting to take over my Apple ID account.

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None of those email addresses and phone numbers in the screenshot belong to people who are posting here in the forum. I do not understand why do you think hiding scammers email address and phone numbers is a great idea.

i received the same text today.

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I got the SAME msg but mine mentions the charge being made on California (I think the CA is California and not Canada 😁). Even with all the scams I always jump a little when I see these things. So invasive

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