Phishing Scam – ‘Final E-mail Before Apple ID Suspended’

According to this email, which purports to be from Apple Support, your Apple ID and iCloud are set to be suspended because you did not complete a verification on time.

Supposedly, the company sent a previous verification email but did not receive a response. The message features a ‘Verify now’ link that supposedly allows you to complete the verification process and save your account from suspension.

However, the email is not from Apple. It is a typical phishing scam designed to steal your Apple ID and other personal details. If you click the ‘verify’ link, you will be taken to a bogus website designed to emulate the genuine Apple login page and asked to supply your email address and Apple password. After you ‘login’ on the fake site, you will be taken to a second fake page that asks for a large amount of your personal and financial information including credit card and banking details. The page is designed to look like a real Apple webpage and even includes seemingly legitimate information explaining in detail why you need to complete the verification process.

All of the information you supply on the fake pages can be collected by cybercriminals and used to hijack your Apple account, commit credit card fraud in your name, and steal your identity. This is a fairly sophisticated campaign in that the fake forms attempt to validate the information you supply and gives error messages if the supplied data is not in the correct format.

The scam even has a built in – and quite nasty – retaliation against scam investigators who may be testing out the phishing attempt. If you enter false data that includes words such as ‘scam’ into fields on the fake form, your browser will automatically redirect you to a preconfigured Google search for sickening and illegal pornography.

Apple customers are almost constantly targeted in phishing attacks similar to this one. Be very wary of any email that claims to be from Apple and asks you to click a link or open any attachment to verify your account or deal with a supposed account issue. It is always safest to login to your Apple account by entering the address into your browser’s address bar or via an official app.