The fake email message below which claims that the recipients' Apple IDs have been disabled because they have made a lot of purchases from the App Store is a phishing scam. The fake email has links in it that go to a phishing Apple website which steals account usernames and password. The phishing website steals account credentials by asking visitors to sign-in with their Apple account usernames and passwords. Now, any attempt to sign into the fake or phishing website will result in the visitors’ Apple account credentials being sent to the cybercriminals responsible for the scam. Once the cyber crooks have gotten possession of the stolen account credentials, they will use it to hijack their victims’ Apple accounts and use the same accounts fraudulently.
A Sample of the "Invoice Payment and AppleID Disable" Phishing Scam
From: Order Confirmation <no_reply@fraud-account-service.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 2, 2017 11:23 AM
Subject: [New Statement Update] : Invoice Payment AppleID Disable
Apple Invoice
Thank you for buying BILLED TO Apple Store TOTAL $49.99
INVOICE DATE 30 JUL 2017
ORDER ID M2MNSYJ056 DOCUMENT NO. 175116838085
App Store TYPE PURCHASED FROM PRICE
Clash of Clans, Box of Gems Clash of Clans, Box of Gems
Report Problems Purchase In-App iPhone $49.99
TOTAL $49.99
You have purchased many gems until your AppleID account is disabled. please login to verify that this is you or not and login and verify to open your appleid account
Apple users should never click on a link in an email message to sign into their accounts. They should instead, go directly to https://appleid.apple.com/ and sign-in from there. If there is something wrong with their accounts, they will be alerted after signing in. Users who were tricked by the phishing scam, are asked to change their Apple account passwords immediately before their accounts are hijacked and used fraudulently. For those users who are unable to change their passwords, are asked to contact Apple Technical Support for help.