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MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,489
30,728






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:

phish-500x316.jpg


Article Link: Phishing and Malware Emails Posing as Apple and the iPhone 5 Launch
 
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daneoni

macrumors G4
Mar 24, 2006
11,598
1,146
Glad i decided to remove CC details from my Apple account (and Amazon's) when the PSN story broke.
 

1083296

Suspended
Jun 11, 2010
61
4
people falling for these obviously fake fraudulent apps/emails is creating a bad reputation for mac users...
 

inket

macrumors regular
Dec 23, 2009
151
102
Whoever falls for that *OBVIOUS* fake email kinda deserves it.
 

arn

macrumors god
Staff member
Apr 9, 2001
16,363
5,795
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
 

ECUpirate44

macrumors 603
Mar 22, 2010
5,750
8
NC
How awful does that big 5 look on the back of the phone lol. I'd know it was fake just because of that.
 

Boghog

macrumors member
May 7, 2007
89
0
Whoever falls for that *OBVIOUS* fake email kinda deserves it.

Made me grin how obvious and silly this email is. One might even call it a parody of a phishing mail - if it didn't link to real malware but rather to a webpage ridiculing the victim.

EDIT: looking at it more closely I suspect that it must be a prank. "iPhone just turned black" is hilarious. And the GS after the name iPhone 5. Priceless.
 

Sammio2

Cancelled
Aug 16, 2008
215
172
BAhahahahaha Transparency mode...

For those times when you wish finding your iPhone was that bit harder!
 

FSMBP

macrumors 68030
Jan 22, 2009
2,712
2,623
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

Please tell me MacRumors is joking & that this is real. I saw the email and gave them my Apple ID/password & voluntarily sent them the last 4 digits of my soc.
 

1083296

Suspended
Jun 11, 2010
61
4
Please tell me MacRumors is joking & that this is real. I saw the email and gave them my Apple ID/password & voluntarily sent them the last 4 digits of my soc.

... this is why pc users think they're better than mac users
 

cgriffis753

macrumors regular
Oct 12, 2010
144
243
Michigan
Im Sorry but...

Hate to be a bit harsh, but anybody who actually thought those emails were real has GOT TO BE a friction retard!!!!
 

bennettave

macrumors member
Mar 18, 2011
73
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

why wouldn't apple sue?
 

arn

macrumors god
Staff member
Apr 9, 2001
16,363
5,795
here's another phishing email
 

Attachments

  • phish.jpg
    phish.jpg
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Bluefusion

macrumors 6502
Apr 25, 2003
257
1
New York, NY
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

Please tell me MacRumors is joking & that this is real. I saw the email and gave them my Apple ID/password & voluntarily sent them the last 4 digits of my soc.

...

So what you've gotta do is change your Apple ID's password. Right now.

And then, also, if you're already on the Macrumors forums, why not read the news articles? The iPhone 5 doesn't exist (yet). Would you really have heard absolutely nothing about it? When you're ON the Macrumors website?...

... think a little more next time, k? (I'm trying to be constructive)
 

technicsdj

macrumors member
Feb 4, 2011
33
0
The huge 5 on the back makes me want to add another line just so I can get it. I am so excited about the (TRANSPARENT MODE!!!!!)
 

FSMBP

macrumors 68030
Jan 22, 2009
2,712
2,623
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

Bluefusion said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

Please tell me MacRumors is joking & that this is real. I saw the email and gave them my Apple ID/password & voluntarily sent them the last 4 digits of my soc.

...

So what you've gotta do is change your Apple ID's password. Right now.

And then, also, if you're already on the Macrumors forums, why not read the news articles? The iPhone 5 doesn't exist (yet). Would you really have heard absolutely nothing about it? When you're ON the Macrumors website?...

... think a little more next time, k? (I'm trying to be constructive)

Clearly MacRumors can't understand sarcasm today. I figured saying I voluntarily gave them my soc would have made that obvious.
 

munkery

macrumors 68020
Dec 18, 2006
2,217
1
Losing valuable data via phishing emails can be avoided.

- Always manually navigate to the logins of encrypted security sensitive websites and never login to these websites from links in emails, email attachments, instant messages, & etc even if the certificate appears to be legitimate. This prevents login credentials from being stolen via advanced phishing techniques that use cross-site scripting.

See the links in my sig for more details.

Glad i decided to remove CC details from my Apple account (and Amazon's) when the PSN story broke.

Unless you fell for the phishing email, your data is not at risk. This does not represent an incident of SQL, PHP, or other types of web app injection that would provide access to the database that stores credit card data.

Removing your data could be a fruitless measure if apple maintains backups of that data for any length of time. But, removing your data won't hurt anything either.
 
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