Phishing Attacks Use This Simple Trick to Defeat iPhone Message Security

A new social engineering tactic is being used by cybercriminals to trick iPhone users into disabling iMessage's built-in phishing protection, in a bid to expose them to malicious links and scams, according to BleepingComputer.

General Apps Messages Redux
The scam exploits a security feature in iMessage that automatically disables links from unknown senders. Apple told the outlet that when users reply to these messages or add the sender to their contacts, the links become clickable – a behavior that scammers are now actively exploiting, according to the report. The deceptive messages often masquerade as notifications from trusted organizations like USPS or toll road authorities.

Scammers are apparently looking to exploit the familiar "reply STOP" or "reply NO" that often appears at the end of messages from authentic businesses or services, as there's been a surge in SMS phishing (smishing) attacks that specifically ask recipients to reply "Y" to "activate" supposedly legitimate links.

By getting users to respond, attackers not only enable the previously disabled links but also identify active phone numbers that are more likely to engage with future scams.

Tech-savvy users are likely to easily identify these as phishing attempts, but the main concern is that older or less experienced users will be particularly vulnerable to the tactic. Needless to say, the best way to ensure that you never fall for the scam is to never reply to suspicious messages from unknown senders.

phishing scam

SMS phishing attacks with disabled links (Image credit: BleepingComputer)

Another line of defense is to enable message filtering on your iPhone or iPad. Message filtering sorts messages from people who are not in your contacts into a separate list, where you can more easily view them in the Messages app. To filter messages from unknown senders, open Settings and go to Apps ➝ Messages, then toggle on the switch next to Filter Unknown Senders.

Bear in mind that the feature can filter legitimate messages – from couriers or your bank, for example – so don't automatically assume that a filtered message is dodgy. And, as mentioned above, you can't open links in a message from an unknown sender until you add them to your contacts or reply to the message, but that's by design.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Expected Next Week - Here Are the Release Notes

Friday March 28, 2025 2:01 pm PDT by
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect. There's an Apple Vision Pro app, new Apple Intelligence features for notifications and additional language support, plus an Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers, and several updates that should improve the...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Six Things to Know About Apple's Upcoming Foldable iPhone

Friday March 28, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We've been hearing rumors about a foldable iPhone for almost a decade now, but it looks like we might finally see the device come to fruition in 2026. We're going to be waiting many more months for the foldable iPhone, but so far we're hearing good things. Apple wants to make it creaseless. It's taken Apple multiple years to design a foldable iPhone that it's satisfied with because Apple ...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...
macOS Sequoia Feature

Apple Releases macOS Sequoia 15.4 With Mail Categorization and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:04 am PDT by
Apple today released macOS Sequoia 15.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Sequoia operating system that launched in September. macOS Sequoia 15.4 comes two months after the launch of macOS Sequoia 15.3. Mac users can download the ‌‌macOS Sequoia‌‌ update through the Software Update section of System Settings. It is available for free on all Macs able to run macOS 15. With...

Top Rated Comments

vertsix Avatar
11 weeks ago
Why doesn't Apple use Apple Intelligence to detect and remove these things?

Genuine question, I know Apple Intelligence sucks at this time but I'm sure it can be easily trained to detect these samples?
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
McWetty Avatar
11 weeks ago
“iPhone users hate this one trick…” is the only way this article could be more clickbait. /s

Snark aside… I eliminated this spamming by removing all my personal data from data brokers. It took me an entire Saturday, but I managed to remove my email/phone/address from over 40 online sources and I haven’t gotten a single SMS spam since. Not even during the US election season.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jayryco Avatar
11 weeks ago
The faster we leave SMS behind the better.
I have had the same phone number for 20+ years and it must be part of an active list scammers use because at this point I receive phishing SMS's at least 2-3 times a week and regularly use TrueCaller to filter out this garbage.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ignatius345 Avatar
11 weeks ago

I eliminated this spamming by removing all my personal data from data brokers. It took me an entire Saturday, but I managed to remove my email/phone/address from over 40 online sources
Would be very interested to hear specifics on how you (or anyone else) did this. Did you pay for some service that automates it, or manually go through and fill out forms? Thanks!
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
spazzcat Avatar
11 weeks ago
Don't reply to messages from pepole you don't know or don't make any sense because they have no context.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dynamojoe Avatar
11 weeks ago
Can I just block all SMS from the Philippines?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)