Description

I was sent a text message claiming that “Your Apple ID was used at "APPLE STORE" for $239.99. To ensure safety we hold payment for approval. If not you then contact Apple Support +18202185559”. I called the provided phone number and the person that answered the phone claimed that attempts had been made in Alabama, China, and Germany to use my Apple ID at the Apple Store to make purchases. They wanted to download a program to my computer to clean viruses and malware off of it. At this point I realized it was probably a scam and accused them of such. Of course they denied it, and told me I could Google the phone number they supplied me with to verify it was indeed Apple Support. The phone number they supplied me with was legitimate, but I had enough sense to check the phone number that the text originated from, (978) 852-3942, and the phone number the text instructed me to call, (820) 218-5559 and found that neither was the number for Apple Support. I Googled the number for Apple Support and found that it’s 1-800-275-2273. Unfortunately, I had already supplied the scammers with my email address and phone number, but that’s all, before I realized it was a scam. To date, I have no knowledge of any negative activity or results from this encounter, thank goodness, but I try to stay abreast of all online scams/scammers and their tactics and still almost fell prey to one. So, please, please, for your own sake be EXTRA diligent in investigating texts, emails, phone calls, etc…before providing a perfect stranger with any personal information, particularly access to your computer, passwords, social security numbers, bank information, etc…