Scam from jerks claiming to be Apple CS

[OtinG]

Just beware there is a phone scam going on where you get a call claiming to be from Apple CS saying your iCloud account was compromised and you need to call them at a number they list. It of course is a data mining scam, and a very annoying one. I’ve received four calls like this since Black Friday. I quickly block each phone number but they call again using another number, all of which are likely faked numbers anyway. I hope Apple throws their corporate weight around and goes after the company doing this. I saw one internet article that says it is a company trying to scare you into buying their security services. If so Apple should be able to go after them via their lawyers.

[ilovejedd]

Yeah, my mom's gotten several of these calls over the last year. Good thing is she always leaves calls from unknown numbers to voicemail and checks with me first.

My parents have also received several calls from people claiming to be from Social Security or the IRS. Something to be wary of as we're nearing tax season.

[Deskisamess]

We get those calls, and calls about Windows being corrupted. We no longer answer any calls from numbers not in our contacts. Important calls leave voice mail.

Lately we've been getting car warranty calls, they always leave voice mail, and several have left voice mails in Chinese or Mandarin. I drive a 2005, he drives a 2011.

The call spoofing is terrible...my husband gets them for 417 and I get them for 704, both are the first 3 digits of our numbers. He gets multiple spoof calls every day, I get a few a week.

[pwalker8]

Odds are pretty good that this kind of fraudulent activity is actually based outside the US. Even the small percentage that are based inside the US are likely small fly by night groups that are active for a month, then close up shop and open under a new name.

Some of these scams are actually two tier, in addition to trying to get your financial information, they also forward to a 1-900 number if you press the button to either talk to a "customer service rep" or get off the call list, so you are charged for each minute you are on the phone. Since it's an international 1-900 call, the local phone enforces the charge even if it's fraud because the way international calls work.

[OtinG]

I never answer calls from unknown numbers. I block those numbers as soon as they occur. If they leave a recorded message and I recognize they are legitimate, then I unblock them. These scam calls have all left messages. Thankfully with my iPhone XR I can read the transcription, immediately see it is a scam, delete the message and leave the number blocked. I agree that most of these scams are likely from foreign sources/locations.

The most prevalent annoying calls I get these days are from people wanting to buy my house for pennies on the dollar—not gonna happen! I even get texts from many of them. They get a nasty text sent back in return. Unfortunately I get a lot of snail mail from them too. These probably don’t qualify as scams, but it won’t end well for those who take them up on their lowball offers.

[haertig]

My mom - who is 90 - got a call telling her that her Windows computer had been compromised and they could help her fix it. Her response? "I run Linux, you idiot." And she hung up. Way to go mom!

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by OtinG

Just beware there is a phone scam going on where you get a call claiming to be from Apple CS saying your iCloud account was compromised and you need to call them at a number they list.

I got this by SMS yesterday. As someone who's rabidly allergic to the idea of ever using any Apple products, hardware or software, it made me smile.

[lazyreadr]

There seems to be 100 variations of this type of fishing. It is usually only dangerous when a well targetted variant arrives.

For both landline and cellphone I have unknown numbers go immediately without ringtone to the answering machine. If it is a legitimate new caller they can use the box and I call back.

Typically scammers rarely bother to leave a message and this way they did at least not disturb me at an unconvenient time.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I got this by SMS yesterday. As someone who's rabidly allergic to the idea of ever using any Apple products, hardware or software, it made me smile.

The irony of your statement is that we Apple users are far less likely to have a real issue with data breaching, as opposed to Google users who can pretty much be assured that Google itself will data mine their devices and apps and sell it to the highest bidder. That is why know these are scams, because Apple's walled garden works and they are not evil to the core like Google, Facebook, etc. MS isn’t evil, but they are very sloppy and stupid. So chuckle all you want to my friend, while bad guys read through all of your personal data and transactions.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by OtinG

The irony of your statement is that we Apple users are far less likely to have a real issue with data breaching, as opposed to Google users who can pretty much be assured that Google itself will data mine their devices and apps and sell it to the highest bidder. That is why know these are scams, because Apple's walled garden works and they are not evil to the core like Google, Facebook, etc. MS isn’t evil, but they are very sloppy and stupid. So chuckle all you want to my friend, while bad guys read through all of your personal data and transactions.

Thanks for the entertaining diatribe - the cause of my amusement at receiving the scam SMS was simply the poor aim of the phishers, nothing more.

[crane3]

Originally Posted by OtinG

The irony of your statement is that we Apple users are far less likely to have a real issue with data breaching, as opposed to Google users who can pretty much be assured that Google itself will data mine their devices and apps and sell it to the highest bidder. That is why know these are scams, because Apple's walled garden works and they are not evil to the core like Google, Facebook, etc. MS isn’t evil, but they are very sloppy and stupid. So chuckle all you want to my friend, while bad guys read through all of your personal data and transactions.

I got 2 calls from 'apple' & no msg was left on my answering machine; considered that it was a scam like the ones pretending to be from the SSA.

Apple is not above 'mining' their customers' data. I received an email that something on my account got changed; waited about 2 weeks before doing anything then decided to check anyway.

My CC number was changed! This was the time about the big deal about chipped CC. I received a new chipped CC from a different issued by the bank who " repurchased" (?) their customers' accounts for CC; the apple account's CC# had expired during the time frame.

apple did use their big stick to obtain the replacement CC# from a different issuer. Guess an employee does go thru people's accounts for info to sell &/or change account info. I don't believe that apple is more secure than google; I now believe news stories of people getting new iphones & got them setup with other peoples data & profile.

[pazos]

Originally Posted by OtinG

The irony of your statement is that we Apple users are far less likely to have a real issue with data breaching, as opposed to Google users who can pretty much be assured that Google itself will data mine their devices and apps and sell it to the highest bidder. That is why know these are scams, because Apple's walled garden works and they are not evil to the core like Google, Facebook, etc. MS isn’t evil, but they are very sloppy and stupid. So chuckle all you want to my friend, while bad guys read through all of your personal data and transactions.

The real difference is that Apple holds the monopoly of data mining in their devices and applications.

I, as an iPad user, I'm aware they don't sell that data to third parties like Google and Facebook do. Accordly to their TOS they can do some disclosure with some third parties but is not the same.

Anyways all these companies are using the same fingerprinting techniques to know their users.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by lazyreadr

There seems to be 100 variations of this type of fishing. It is usually only dangerous when a well targetted variant arrives.

For both landline and cellphone I have unknown numbers go immediately without ringtone to the answering machine. If it is a legitimate new caller they can use the box and I call back.

Typically scammers rarely bother to leave a message and this way they did at least not disturb me at an unconvenient time.

Turn off your call forwarding on your landline! Your number can be hacked, and forwarded to another smart phone number. Voila! Your landline is now a smart phone, under a hacker's control. And then they can steal from any account that has your land line as the only number.

First, they change your email address to a "burner" email address. then they try to withdraw! Luckily, in my case, they tried too soon, and the financial institute marked as a hack and shut down access. I only found out about it via snail mail, , ,

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Greg Anos

Turn off your call forwarding on your landline! Your number can be hacked, and forwarded to another smart phone number. Voila! Your landline is now a smart phone, under a hacker's control. And then they can steal from any account that has your land line as the only number.

This seems very unlikely to me. Can you please elaborate on how my landline number might be "hacked"? Without hacking my landline provider's system, just how would they change where my number is being forwarded to? And how would turning off call forwarding on my landline prevent someone who later hacks my landline account (or my landline provider's system) from re-enabling call-forwarding and doing whatever they want anyway? And what kind of accounts are vulnerable to being "stolen from" with just a phone number? Even to get the second token of a 2FA protected account forwarded to someone's smart phone from a hacked landline, they'd need to crack the first password.

I'm all for being safer with your data, but your scenario doesn't sound that probable to me. I just don't believe anyone is more (or less) at risk by having their landline forwarded.

You're better off realizing (and spreading the word) that companies such as Apple and Microsoft simply don't cold-call people to avoid this kind of scam.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

You're better off realizing (and spreading the word) that companies such as Apple and Microsoft simply don't cold-call people to avoid this kind of scam.

I realize this, but still it was spooky getting the iCloud scam call (on our message machine, we don’t pick up for unknown callers) less than 12 hours after creating an iCloud account to use with my wife’s new iPhone (without any previous Apple device registered to her). I had to talk myself down.

I really don’t understand how they can spoof our own land line number (or any number for that matter). Caller ID implementation seems stuck in the 1980s.