What you should know about Apple Support scam calls

What you should know about Apple Support scam calls

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Don't fall prey to increasingly tricky scammers.
Photo: Khusen Rustamov/Pixabay License

This post on Apple support scam calls is brought to you by the data security specialists at Incogni.

Once technical hurdles start ruining one’s day, most people would do anything it takes to resolve them as soon as possible and get on with their merry lives. This is especially true if resolving the problem is needed to progress with the task at hand, service a client, or anything along these lines.

When there is a looming sense of urgency, you are much more likely to fall victim to a scam or buy into a false pretense that someone can help you out. What a perfect atmosphere for scammers to prosper — and they’re getting increasingly more sophisticated in their ways. Falling in line with the rest of their repertoire of methods they use to defraud you, there is the infamous Apple Support scam, the latest addition to bad actors’ bag of tricks.

How does the Apple Support scam work?

One day, your trusty iPhone may start ringing, displaying a number that appears as though it’s coming from Apple Support. To further dispel any remaining doubts, the person on the other end of the line presents themselves as one of Apple’s customer support agents. If you’re naive enough to take things at face value and believe what they’re telling you, you might be willing to divulge some of your personal information for the sake of resolving the matter (which is exactly what they will ask of you).

To justify their attempts, they may claim this is “standard procedure” or tell you there’s something wrong with your account and they need to confirm your identity before proceeding. There are multiple variations on this scheme, but the bottom line is, the scammers want your personal information or login credentials. If you hand it over, you might soon find yourself regretting your decision after you run the caller’s number through a simple Google check, revealing that whoever called you is not from Apple.

However, if the fraudsters executing this scam are particularly sly, they can take it to the next level by spoofing their number. This way, you will reach a legitimate Apple customer support agent by calling back — not the guy who just called you a moment ago. How is this possible? The answer is caller ID manipulation, also known as caller ID spoofing. In the hands of a hacker who also happens to have a knack for social engineering, this can be a potent weapon.

iPhone doesn’t have a mechanism to prevent caller ID spoofing

The iPhone’s lack of a mechanism that would be able to detect or prevent this kind of trick spurred an onslaught of criticism in the cybersecurity expert community. Among the most vocal critics was Brian Krebs, a cybersecurity specialist who thinks there should be some kind of built-in functionality for iPhones to distinguish between a real Apple Support call and a fake one.

As it stands right now, there is no mechanism that would prevent scammers from taking advantage of this vital security flaw. In this case, the only way to stay safe is to rely on your own intuition and stay vigilant.

How to not fall prey to Apple Support scams

Did you know that Apple never calls you directly? The way it works is that you can call Apple’s support line if you need help, but the company will never initiate a call of its own volition. Therefore, if someone calls you and claims they’re an Apple representative, you can be 100% sure that it’s a scam.

However, Apple has been known to contact its users via email in the past, which makes dealing with this scam a tad bit trickier. Just as you would with any other email that lands in your inbox, you need to exercise a fair bit of caution and ask yourself whether the email truly came from a legitimate source.

The first thing you can do is check the address it was sent from. Does it all look fine and dandy? Look again. Oftentimes, scammers will register a domain with misspellings in it because it almost looks like the real thing at first glance, which is how they trick people.

If they ask for personal info, don’t provide it

Another way to know that you’re dealing with an Apple Support scam without a shred of doubt is if the sender asks you for any kind of personal details. You can know for a fact that Apple will never ask you for such a thing, even if something is truly wrong with your account. Since they have administrative privileges, they can fix whatever needs fixing themselves without needing your login credentials to access the account. And if they prompt you to reset your password for security reasons, the platform has a built-in mechanism for that. In other words, the process does not require human interaction (outside of you setting a new password via a special link).

Speaking of which, you should never click on any links that anyone sends you via email or other messaging platforms. The reason being is that you never know whether they’re legitimate or not. In case one of your accounts needs attention on your end, the solution is to type in the URL directly into your browser as opposed to clicking on any kind of link.

This way, you kill two birds with one stone. If it indeed turns out to be a scam, you get to avoid exposing yourself to potential cybersecurity risks. And if it’s a legitimate request, you’ll get to resolve the matter on the spot.

Do you get such fraudulent emails often?

If you keep getting fraudulent emails, it likely means that your personal information has been leaked on the web. Third-party brokers often publish or resell such information for profit without obtaining it through legitimate means. The good news is that you can utilize dedicated services that will remove your information from the internet. By taking care of the opt-out process on your behalf, you won’t have to waste a minute of your time dealing with bureaucracy only for the sake of protecting your right to privacy. As a result, this will enhance your protection against scammers, identity theft, shadow profiles, and other cyberthreats.

Conclusion

Scams are a fact of life. If you’ve signed up for an account with any kind of online service, there’s a chance you may be targeted by fraudsters. Don’t make their job too easy! By learning to spot these signs, and sticking to the best security practices, you’ll force them to find an easier target.