Identifying Phishing Scams in text messages

First, thank you community for posting this. I checked here first just to make sure it was pfishing. I received the same message as well, so I took a screen, capture and posted it. Note the phone number of the sender. I reported it as junk, there were no charges placed on my account.

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I received this text today. So thankful for this discussion board.

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I received the same text..

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I got the 2nd one today. The first one freaked me out and I ended up calling them and giving them way too much information. I had to completely change all of my banking. It took months to fix. Be diligent and report them to the FCC or any organization that can hurt them back!

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I just received this exact text. 3/19/2025

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HHIKAR wrote:

I just received this exact text. 3/19/2025

Sadly, this really isn’t newsworthy. It’s possible that a million users got the same message from the same criminals. Just delete the message.

Hello~ Yes…it’s a scam.

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

~Katana-San~

I received from a rossjohn2**@yahoo

Unknown Apple Pay Request

We’ve temporarily suspended certain actions on your Apple ID due to suspicious behavior linked to your account (Case ID: 6749182****). A transaction for $498.29 was initiated at Apple Store – Orlando, FL using Apple Pay. Our system also intercepted multiple failed sign-in attempts and efforts to activate Apple Pay from devices not previously associated with your account. To safeguard your information, these actions have been blocked while we investigate.

If you authorized this activity, no further steps are needed — the payment will be processed within 24 hours. If this is unfamiliar, please contact Apple Support at (844) 376-**** to prevent unauthorized access.

Support Resources:

Apple Support: 1-844-376-****

Billing Assistance: reportaproblem.apple

Your swift attention helps keep your personal data secure.

Stay safe,

Apple Security Team

I’ve never received anything like this before is this fraudulent?

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MrHoffman wrote:

And yes, some people will either find the number here, or will find it in the AI slop, and will call it.

For years, the phone companies told people to only use (555) area code numbers in songs and other fictional works. Why? (555) is reserved for the phone companies themselves, and there are few numbers in it. Call up with nonsense or abuse, and you are "only" harassing the phone company, not its customers. If you even ring a phone at all.

One rock band ignored this advice and included a regular seven-digit number (no area code) in a song about a fictional woman named "Jenny" whose name and number was "on the wall". If you've ever heard this song, the number is virtually impossible to forget. The band "helpfully" repeated the number over and over, ad nauseam.

The result was a flood of obscene phone calls to real people who had that number, in one area code or another. Obscene phone calls placed by idiots who did not know or care about the difference between fiction and reality.

I have gotten a very similar text with the same amount “charged” via apple pay. This message seems better written than the old texts in these posts too

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I just got this, too. Same amount: $143.95. Sender was cr********2@icloud.com.

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This scam is still floating around. I got this today.

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Lawrence Finch wrote:

…

You have joined the hundreds of millions of users around the world who get scams like this daily.

Yep.

And the scammers are only going to get better at collecting contact info, and at scamming.

If any here have important accounts without two-factor, go enable that, mute unknown senders, etc.

Hello~ Can I ask you to explain something please? Why would you be “glad” here… “Very glad to see others have received the same so i know it is a scam”. That’s a very disappointing statement to make.

~Katana-San~