A scam purporting to offer you the opportunity to “test and keep the New iPhone5!” began making new rounds on Thursday. TMO readers and staff members received text messages with the bogus offer, which is an effort to lure people to a website and give up personal information or some other nefarious scheme.
The scam message many of us have received:
Sample SMS Text Scam Message
We are showing the URL so that our readers can be warned simply to stay away from the site. We, on the other hand, were foolish and looked at the site for you:
Oh look! We’re just in time! Only five minutes left!
Scam Site: Do Not Go Here Or Enter Any Information at All
This scam first began circulating in February, but the scumbags responsible sent out a new wave of texts today.
To recap:
- This is a scam
- Apple does not send out unannounced products for testing outside of Apple
- Even if it did decide to test its devices in this fashion, it wouldn’t do so by sending random text messages
This scam is similar to another scam currently circulating via Twitter that purports to be from Draw Something. It is not from Draw Something, or the game’s parent company, Zynga, but it is a scam trying to get you. The real Draw Something is very cool.
If you get confronted with someone offering you the opportunity to test unannounced Apple products, please refer to our handy three-step process above.