There’s a new scam out there targeting Mac and iPhone customers. West Virginia newspaper The Herald Dispatch reported that people are scam phone calls from would-be crooks claiming to be from “Apple Support,” “Apple Inc.,” or a local Apple Store.
This is similar to scammers claiming to be from “Windows,” something that’s been happening for years.
Their pitch is that your iCloud account has been hacked, and that they can fix it if you’ll just give them remote access to your Mac. Presumably they are installing malware onto victims’ Macs.
Avoid Scam Phone Calls
Don’t fall for this scam. Your iCloud account isn’t likely to be hacked (there haven’t been any actual hacks of iCloud to date). Apple wouldn’t call you if it did happen, either. More importantly, they wouldn’t need access to your Mac to “fix” it.
Our regular readers know this, but we all have people we know, love, and provide tech support for who don’t. This would be a good time to remind them of basic security issues, such as don’t give the jackanape on the phone access to your Mac.
Thanks for the heads up, Bryan.
When I first read your opening sentence on the TMO face page, my mind changed ‘telephoned’ to ‘teleported’, and I had a pang of disappointment that they hadn’t contacted me. Teleportation, great way to start the week. Unless you’re Reginald Barclay, or that guy in Star Trek I (the Movie).
Based on where I work, I often get contacted by Windows scammers, mainly operating out of South Asia (they have Mumbai accents, but they could be calling from anywhere in India) or Eastern European trying overly hard to sound American or British. They always begin by calling me by name, reminding me of a bogus service to which I am supposed to have subscribed, but can never tell me when, and sometimes carry the bluff as far as to remind me of ‘that time when…’ they presumably bailed me out of tight security spot.
When I enquire when did that occur, when did I sign up for this service, or what type of system am I running, things go sideways on their end. When I tell them I haven’t owned a Windows PC since 1995 (an HP Aero whilst working in Guyana, but I digress), they politely insist that they are my service team, not to use my computer to do any online banking until I sort things out with them, leave me their contact info (curiously) and hang up.
Bottom line, the Windows scammers are smooth operators, sound legitimate on introduction, professionally courteous, and will try to convince you of their bona fides. If the Apple scammers are anything like their Windows counterparts, Mac users should expect the same, and not some slack-jawed, brachiating hominid on the other end.
wab95, I love you, sir. Great details for this story! I imagine these are the exact same people, but even if they’re clones, they are likely to be smooth.
It would be fun to jack with these scammers. Keep them busy, sounding like you are going to give them what they want but always managing to foul up or not understand their instructions. Basically, just do what our parents do when we are trying to provide tech support to them. 😄