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.
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:
Top Rated Comments
(View all)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
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.
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.