"Your Apple ID Account is Locked Due to Unusually High Activity" Phishing Scam
The email message below with the subject "Your Apple ID account is locked due to unusually high activity" is a phishing scam. The phishing email message is being sent by cybercriminals to trick Apple users into clicking on the link in it. The link in the email message goes to a fake Apple website that will ask visitors to sign-in. Once visitors attempt to sign into the fake website with their Apple usernames and passwords, the same information will be sent to the cybercriminals behind the phishing scam.
The Phishing Apple Email Message
From: Apple Inc apple-update2@customer-limited-support.com
Sent: 16 April 2017 03:01
Subject: Your Apple ID account is locked due to unusually high activity
Your Apple ID account is locked due to unusually high activity
Updated information for your account security
It may take a few moments for this transaction to appear in your account.
Invoice ID : 2950320884
Date : 15 April, 2017 10:59:11 PDT
Issues with this transaction? If this not your transaction,
we will help the process of recovery refund and protect your account.
To cancel this purchase Read your secure message by opening the attacment (pdf).
You will be prompted to open (view) the file or save (download) it to your computer.
for best results, save the file first, then open it in a Web browser.
Once the cybercriminals have received the stolen Apple usernames and passwords, they will use it to hijack their potential victims’ Apple accounts and use them fraudulently. Therefore, Apple users who have been tricked by the phishing scam are asked to change their Apple accounts' password, check their accounts for discrepancies and contact Apple for help if any is found.
This is another reason why Apple user should never click on links in email or other messages to sign into their accounts, they should instead, go directly to https://appleid.apple.com/ and sign-in from there. If there is someone that needs to be done their accounts, they will be notified after signing in.
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Note: Some of the information in samples on this website may have been impersonated or spoofed.