{"id":155,"date":"2019-04-06T19:33:16","date_gmt":"2019-04-06T19:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/?p=155"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T17:00:00","slug":"'Apple-&-iCloud-ID-Cancellation'-Phishing-Scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/?p=155","title":{"rendered":"‘Apple & iCloud ID Cancellation’ Phishing Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Apple<\/a><\/p>\n

According to this email, \u00a0your Apple ID is about to be removed from iCloud and all Apple services. The message claims that Apple needs to ‘fully verify’ your Apple ID to ‘comply with mandatory European Union (EU) legislation and to confirm your identity’. \u00a0It requests that you click a link to complete the verification and save your account from cancellation.<\/p>\n

However, the email is not from Apple. Instead, it is a phishing scam<\/a> designed to trick you into divulging a large amount of your personal and financial information to online criminals. \u00a0If you click the link in the email, you will be taken to a fraudulent web \u00a0page \u00a0designed to emulate a genuine \u00a0Apple \u00a0site. \u00a0The initial scam page asks you to login with your Apple ID email address and password. \u00a0Subsequent pages on the site ask you to provide a great deal of information about yourself \u00a0and \u00a0your bank and credit card accounts as well as supply identifying information such as your SSN and driver’s licence number.<\/p>\n

When you finish filling out the fake forms, you may receive a final message informing you that your Apple ID has been successfully verified.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the scammers operating this phishing campaign can harvest \u00a0all of the information you supplied and use it to \u00a0hijack \u00a0your Apple account, commit credit card and other types of financial fraud in your name, and steal your identity.<\/p>\n

In a strange \u00a0twist, the criminals who created \u00a0this scam have \u00a0attempted to \u00a0thwart \u00a0scam investigators. 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.<\/p>\n

Apple customers are regularly \u00a0targeted in phishing scams<\/a> similar to this one. \u00a0Be very cautious \u00a0of any email that purports \u00a0to be from Apple and asks you to click a link or open an attachment to verify your account or fix a supposed problem. \u00a0It is always safest to login to your Apple account by entering the address into your browser’s address bar or via an official app.<\/p>\n