Phishing and Malware Emails Posing as Apple and the iPhone 5 Launch

iphone5
We've received a number of warnings from readers over the last couple of weeks about fraudulent emails that look a lot like official Apple emails. These emails are structured just like Apple's promotional emails, but are actually attempts to lure unsuspecting customers into entering their Apple IDs and other personal information. Such so called "phishing" attempts are common and readers should be wary about following links from any emails.

What caught our eye is that the latest round of these fraudulent emails are actually leveraging the hype around the next generation iPhone. The latest email (pictured above) passes itself off as an Apple launch email for the iPhone 5. (Full size). It cobbles together various photos from the internet and entices users to click on "Learn More". The learn more link, however, links to a Windows executable which we presume to be malware (virus, trojan, keylogger, etc...), so readers are warned to avoid clicking on any links from these emails.

iphone5gs

Reports of compromised App Store and Apple ID accounts have generated a lot of press in the past due to the scale of the iTunes Stores. It was believed that account details were stolen using these sort of techniques rather than any sort of vulnerability in iTunes itself.

Another example of a fraudulent email:

phish

Top Rated Comments

arn Avatar
169 months ago
people falling for these obviously fake fraudulent apps/emails is creating a bad reputation for mac users...

Whoever falls for that *OBVIOUS* fake email kinda deserves it.

They're not all obviously fake. Others look identical to Apple emails. The links just are sent to non apple domains.

arn
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
atticus18244fsa Avatar
169 months ago
Transparent mode? Ya, ok... :p
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jeffkope Avatar
169 months ago
Hate to be a bit harsh, but anybody who actually thought those emails were real has GOT TO BE a friction retard!!!!

I grabbed my iPhone as soon as I read this and typed in "frickin" just to see if it autocorrected to "friction"

I feel your pain man. It gets me too.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ECUpirate44 Avatar
169 months ago
How awful does that big 5 look on the back of the phone lol. I'd know it was fake just because of that.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
toddybody Avatar
169 months ago
An important thing to remember is that these emails are targeted at less informed consumers...not the type that grace MR.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
arkmannj Avatar
169 months ago
I don't really understand how the first one could trick anyone. You only need a very basic understanding of physics.

I understand what you're getting at, and can appreciate your perspective, but you know my parents and grandparents are already seeing things on a daily basis that amazes them and they never thought they'd see in their lifetime. The iPhone alone is amazing to them, that someone can have a phone, connect to email, get directions, store your journal, play games, buy music, but tickets to the symphony on the way there, take video, edit the video then share it with the world. So I think from there perspective they'd just be thinking "Oh wow, that looks like something our grandkids would be interested in" and then they might venture to check it out. They're all intelligent people, but not technology geeks, or anything so to them I could see that it may seem somewhat plausible and unfortunately I'm sure it's that kind of people that the scammers are preying on.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Rumored to Add These 10 New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
iPad And Calculator App Feature 1

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...