Recently I received the email copied below with a subject line of “Your Apple Account has been Frozen.” As with many of these phishing emails it is intended to make you think that there is an emergency that requires your immediate action. Unfortunately if you click on the link to Verify Now one of two things will happen. Either you will unwittingly download keystroke logging malware that will steal all of the information from your computer and it will be used to make you a victim of identity theft or you will provide your Apple ID and password, which will then be used by the identity thief to make you a victim of identity theft. Here is the email I received.
“Dears ,
We just need to verify that this email address belongs to you. Simply click the link below and sign in using your Apple ID and password.
Verify Now >
Wondering why you got this email? It’s sent when someone adds or changes a contact email address for an Apple ID account. If you didn’t do this, don’t worry. Your email address cannot be used as a contact address for an Apple ID without your verification. For more information, see our frequently asked questions.
Thanks,
Apple Customer Support”
TIPS
As phishing emails go, this one is not particular good. Although the email address from which it was sent appears to be an Apple email address as contrasted with the email address of the senders of many of these which are the email addresses of unfortunate individuals whose email addresses have been hijacked by hackers and incorporated into a botnet. This email did not contain a logo and was not even addressed to me by name. Of course regardless of how legitimate any email appears, I hope you follow my advice as to never click on links or provide personal information to any email or text message you receive. You can never be sure if these communications are legitimate or not although it usually pretty easy to identify most phishing emails. If you have any thought that the email or text message might be legitimate, all you have to do is to contact the real company at an address or phone number that you independently know is accurate to confirm whether indeed the communication to you was a scam.