How do I report a fraud phishing attempt on iPhone?




[Edited by Moderator]

iPhone 12 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Mar 25, 2025 7:06 AM

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Posted on Mar 25, 2025 7:13 AM

See this link, which has a way to report phishing to Apple, but they also recommend reporting it to the FTC --> Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support


9 replies

Mar 25, 2025 8:04 AM in response to Tim Murray2

Tim Murray2 wrote:

I think you missed the point: Many of us want to report phishing attempts. Will it do any good? Probably not. But it's a moderately satisfying feeling to at least report this stuff to the proper authorities. I have 60 addresses of the for "phishing @ some company" and, of course, the 7726 number.


There is the FTC's fraud reporting site: https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/ . There is also the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): https://www.ic3.gov/ run by the FBI ( https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber/ ). (The IC3 site might focus more on collecting reports from people who fell victim to scams.)


Another U.S. Government Web site: USA.gov – Learn where to report a scam


At some companies, "abuse @ company" seems to be a valid reporting address.


When I got this scam e-mail on my Mac, examination of the return address showed that it was really from some criminal using a Gmail account, so I forwarded the scam e-mail to the Google abuse address. I like to think that the scammers' e-mail account got pulled, but given how easy it is to create new e-mail accounts, that probably would just have been a "road bump" for the scammers. They might have planned to "burn" the e-mail account after use even if Google didn't take it away from them.



Mar 25, 2025 9:05 AM in response to Justme1212

“Don't answer suspicious phone calls or messages claiming to be from Apple. Instead, contact Apple directly through our official support channels.”


”To report a suspicious SMS text message that looks like it's supposed to be from Apple, take a screenshot of the message and email the screenshot to reportphishing@apple.com.”


You can report phishing at these links and most importantly your local law enforcement.



Learn about how not to be a victim of Social Engineering.


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

Mar 25, 2025 8:39 AM in response to Tim Murray2

Sorry, missed that you asking to report it. Almost all similar topics ask if it's real, so I assumed this was the same.


But, as IdrisSeabright already pointed out in excellent detail, it's a complete waste of time to report these. The email address (or phone number) of the sender isn't just likely to be spoofed, it's a 100% certainty.


The crooks also know when they hammer a phone or email with millions of scam messages, that "source" will be blacklisted within a few days, so they switch to a different spoofed source every day. Or within hours.


In other words, you're reporting both a false source, and one that will change constantly.

Mar 25, 2025 8:09 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

IdrisSeabright wrote:


Tim Murray2 wrote:

I think you missed the point: Many of us want to report phishing attempts. Will it do any good?
Almost certainly not.
But it's a moderately satisfying feeling to at least report this stuff to the proper authorities. I have 60 addresses of the for "phishing @ some company" and, of course, the 7726 number.
Who are the "proper authorities?" Apple isn't a law enforcement agency. Nor is any other corporation. Even if you do report it to a law enforcement agency in the U.S., there's an excellent chance that the perpetrators are outside of the U.S. With text messages, Apple provides a "report as junk" button. As it also deletes the message, I use that.

But everyone needs a hobby.....

Once upon a time, I was diligent about reporting scam/phishing attempts. It's too time consuming as I get some scam attempt every day, often multiple times a day. I now just delete, block and ignore.

Mar 25, 2025 7:30 AM in response to Tim Murray2

Tim Murray2 wrote:

I think you missed the point: Many of us want to report phishing attempts. Will it do any good?

Almost certainly not.

But it's a moderately satisfying feeling to at least report this stuff to the proper authorities. I have 60 addresses of the for "phishing @ some company" and, of course, the 7726 number.

Who are the "proper authorities?" Apple isn't a law enforcement agency. Nor is any other corporation. Even if you do report it to a law enforcement agency in the U.S., there's an excellent chance that the perpetrators are outside of the U.S. With text messages, Apple provides a "report as junk" button. As it also deletes the message, I use that.


But everyone needs a hobby.....

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How do I report a fraud phishing attempt on iPhone?

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