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Apple Store in Southern California Warning Customers About Fraudulent Phone Calls
Apple is warning customers who receive unsolicited phone calls claiming to be from the Apple Store at The Americana at Brand shopping complex in Glendale, California, as fraudsters appear to be posing as representatives of the store as part of a phishing scheme aimed at stealing customer information.
The following automated message plays when calling Apple The Americana:
In that case, the local CBS affiliate KREM 2 reported that customers in Spokane received phone calls from a number that appeared to be the local Apple Store, advising they talk to a "support advisor" who informed customers about a false "breach in cloud security" in an attempt to steal their information.
Our understanding is that Apple temporarily adds this automated message to stores associated with an increase in fraudulent behavior in an effort to protect customers. Apple is far from the only company affected by phishing schemes and offers several tips on how to avoid being victimized.
Apple advises customers who receive an unsolicited call from someone claiming to be from Apple to hang up and contact Apple directly.
This is an opportune moment to remind everyone that phishing attacks can also be in the form of emails, so be very careful when you receive an email that claims to be from Apple, especially if prompted to provide your password or other information. Be sure to contact Apple if you are uncertain about any email.
The following automated message plays when calling Apple The Americana:
Apple is aware that some customers are receiving unsolicited calls claiming to be from this Apple Store. If you receive an unsolicited call, you should not provide any information to the callers. For more information on cybercrime and ways to protect your computer, visit www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber. Also, if you feel you have been a victim of fraud, please contact your local police. If you would like help changing your Apple ID password, please visit support.apple.com.Apple did not immediately respond to our question asking if any customer information has been compromised, but it did point us to a previous instance of this warning at its River Park Square store in Spokane, Washington in October 2017.
In that case, the local CBS affiliate KREM 2 reported that customers in Spokane received phone calls from a number that appeared to be the local Apple Store, advising they talk to a "support advisor" who informed customers about a false "breach in cloud security" in an attempt to steal their information.
Our understanding is that Apple temporarily adds this automated message to stores associated with an increase in fraudulent behavior in an effort to protect customers. Apple is far from the only company affected by phishing schemes and offers several tips on how to avoid being victimized.
Apple advises customers who receive an unsolicited call from someone claiming to be from Apple to hang up and contact Apple directly.
This is an opportune moment to remind everyone that phishing attacks can also be in the form of emails, so be very careful when you receive an email that claims to be from Apple, especially if prompted to provide your password or other information. Be sure to contact Apple if you are uncertain about any email.
Related Roundup: Apple Stores
Tag: phishing
[ 36 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
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18 weeks ago
i get 4-5 spam calls a day. iOS 13 needs to copy Google's screen call feature.
18 weeks ago
This phishing thing is out of hand - not just with Apple, but with spoofed numbers in general.
18 weeks ago
Something needs to be done, but I don't think that will help against the number spoofing. I have noticed more and more AT&T alerts on some calls now with either the telemarketer or scam warning. Those have been a nice addition. I'm sure all the carriers do this but maybe they should all do more of it.
It is fixable and it’s easy. Any phone that’s not a registered business with a carrier who has x-amount of calls in a minute has calls stopped until they speak to the carrier.
Then, charge more for calls on a sliding scale where after you make a certain amount of calls, they spike in price.
There is no reason a consumer should be making 100 calls a minute so end that.
It’s not hard, it’s just a wilingnless to act.
18 weeks ago
Verizon doesn't show alerts. Wish they would. This number spoofing is so out of hand that I never answer a call unless it is from a number in my contacts list. If it is legit, they'll leave a message.
Yep, and as soon as they don’t leave a message I block the number. The only problem is that they are spoofing the caller ID, so we will never be able to stop them no matter how many numbers we block.It’s so far out of hand that the carriers need to be held responsible at this point. Maybe then they’ll get off their a** and do something about it.
18 weeks ago
Something needs to be done, but I don't think that will help against the number spoofing. I have noticed more and more AT&T alerts on some calls now with either the telemarketer or scam warning. Those have been a nice addition. I'm sure all the carriers do this but maybe they should all do more of it.
Verizon doesn't show alerts. Wish they would. This number spoofing is so out of hand that I never answer a call unless it is from a number in my contacts list. If it is legit, they'll leave a message.
18 weeks ago
I'm receiving A LOT of fake Apple e-mails. All started 5-6 months ago.
This e-mails really seem like are from Apple, but nope, they are phishing mails.
I get one every 3-6 weeks, and I talked with Apple about this because this is a serious issue (regular, non-techie people will probably bite the bait). They confirmed it was phishing, and told me how to report them. I report them always, but I don't know where the security hole is, where this companies learned that this e-mail adress is actually an Apple ID
This e-mails really seem like are from Apple, but nope, they are phishing mails.
I get one every 3-6 weeks, and I talked with Apple about this because this is a serious issue (regular, non-techie people will probably bite the bait). They confirmed it was phishing, and told me how to report them. I report them always, but I don't know where the security hole is, where this companies learned that this e-mail adress is actually an Apple ID
18 weeks ago
How about Apple issuing fake (i.e., honeypot) logins to a subset of customers. When a scammer calls, give them the fake login.
I wish that credit card companies would do this to the "lower my credit card rate" scammers. Give us honeypot numbers to take out these robocalling idiots.
I wish that credit card companies would do this to the "lower my credit card rate" scammers. Give us honeypot numbers to take out these robocalling idiots.
18 weeks ago
I do the same, but they spoof numbers easily
The way this is handled, generally, in IP networking, is, you know what IP addresses (or subnets) are assigned to a location, serviced by a specific hardware connection/wire, and you only allow packets with known valid source addresses in from that connection/wire, and if you get packets in on that wire that don't have an expected source address, you block the packets (rather than transferring them on through upstream), and you log the bad address (so if you get a ton of them from a specific connection, you know to go "have a talk" with them). Doing this at the point where traffic comes into your network from customer equipment eliminates so many types of problems on the network (yours and those upstream of you).I'd love to see something similar done with caller ID - rather than carriers allowing calls that come into their system from their customers to have whatever caller ID the customer feels like attaching, only allow caller ID numbers that match the numbers issued to the customer, unless/until the customer provides legally valid proof that they have business using other numbers (if you're running some sort of customer support call center, say, contracting your services out to other companies, you ought to be able to prove that they've given you permission to use their numbers). This would cut lots of scammers off from one of their tools for tricking people.
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