There's A New Apple Phishing Scam

Every time I open up my email - either work or personal - I find that I have received multiple phishing scams. Well, it looks like the people responsible are getting sneakier, and the scam has now made its way into our East Texas area. This time, they're making recipients believe that their Apple ID has been locked, and that their passwords are needed to unlock the accounts, otherwise the accounts will be locked permanently.

Apple has confirmed that this is a scam. One of the first ways you can tell if it's a scam is to check the greeting. Most companies will use your name, while these scam messages will use something generic like, "Dear Customer". Also, be sure to check the grammar of the email. Most legitimate emails will be proofread, and will cut down on the amount of errors.

Apple has also provided some other tips to help you identify these scams:

The sender’s email address or phone number doesn’t match the name of the company that it claims to be from.
Your email address or phone number is different from the one that you gave that company.
The message starts with a generic greeting, like “Dear customer.” Most legitimate companies will include your name in their messages to you.
A link appears to be legitimate but takes you to a website whose URL doesn’t match the address of the company’s website.*
The message looks significantly different from other messages that you’ve received from the company.
The message requests personal information, like a credit card number or account password.
The message is unsolicited and contains an attachment.

And, of course, DO NOT click any links that are contained in the email, or download any files that are attached. You don't want to give away any personal information.

Have you gotten any of these messages recently? Or, some that are similar to what we've described? Let us know in the comments below!