Phishing E-mail Aiming at Apple Users, Warn Specialists

According to a warning by security researchers, one phishing e-mail campaign that attempts at defrauding Apple users is in the news while it poses as an Apple Security Department's communication, reported ibtimes.co.in dated February 19, 2014.

Addressing recipients with the words "Dear Apple Customer," the fake electronic mail tells the reader that there was a recent incident of his Apple ID being utilized for taking down OS X Mavericks onto a PC after accessing the Mac application online store. The PC didn't indicate having any linkage to the particular ID earlier and that the OS X Maverick download had been done in Spain.

The e-mail continues that in case the user performed the download he may ignore the message. But, if he hasn't then he must validate his account by substantiating the account's details. For that it's suggested that he view the given attached file within a properly secured Web-browser and complete the validation procedure for safeguarding his account.

But, Apple hasn't sent the e-mail while the alert issued regarding the illegal download is just for duping Internauts into clicking open the attachment, which has certain fake HTML form. This form directs that the end-user should provide the login particulars of his Apple account. Thereafter, it also solicits the credit card and ID details of the person for supposedly validating and safeguarding his A/C.

Unfortunately, once the above details are entered into the bogus online form, cyber-criminals quickly dig at them for compromising the victims' actual A/Cs with Apple. They may as well carry out deceptive transactions with the victims' credit cards or filch their identities.

Indeed, those behind sending the scam e-mail expect there'll be some recipients at least who'll get so panicked that they'll proceed to viewing the attachment as well as providing the details asked, while wrongly believing that someone has hijacked their Apple account credentials.

Meanwhile, similar as other prominent firms and organizations, Apple nearly constantly gets attacked with phishing scams. Indeed, Apple won't ever dispatch its users any unsolicited e-mail, which directs them for logging in as also validating their account information via following/viewing a given web-link/attachment.

» SPAMfighter News - 2/28/2014