Phishing Scam Circulating to Grab Apple IDs from Apple Customers

Websense the security company cautions Apple customers to remain vigilant of one fresh spam mail outbreak that is yet again targeting them to 'phish' them off their Apple usernames.

The spam mail captioned "Apple ID Cancelled" tells that Apple has tentatively withdrawn the recipient's Apple ID because some unauthorized source attempted at entering his account via a different IP address. The e-mail then requests the recipient to again validate his identity the same day else because of maintenance of all Apple users' security and integrity, it'll be necessary to deactivate his account.

Thereafter, the message asks the user to click on a given web-link so his account ID with Apple can be activated.

However, according to Websense, in case anyone does click he will be led onto an imposter page, which is an imitation of the real 'My Apple ID' website. On this page, victims come across the familiar Apple account log-in field.

Elaborating further, Security Researcher Gianluca Giuliani at Websense stated that the imposters who controlled the phishing site used one "open directory" that facilitated navigation of the server route for the phishing message's delivery. Technewsdaily.com published this dated October 10, 2012.

The researcher also stated that Websense was able to trace the assault's source and found that it was certain Internet Protocol address that hosted more phishing domains as well as service providers.

Notably, phishing scams have the potentiality to target any Internet-user. Cyber-criminals keep searching for information on the Net that can enable them with account compromises for subsequent theft of data or funds. Thus, all Internauts must be careful while entering login details on a website however trustworthy it maybe. For, fraudsters frequently create fake websites, which appear familiar inside a Web-browser, although never inside its address bar. Therefore, suppose any web-address looks different from its usual form, one must never give his details on that site, Websense's experts suggest.

In the meantime, recently Apple consumers became targets of similar phishing e-mails. An e-mail scam, during September 2012, hit Apple device holders, purporting to be a missive related to password resetting, BitDefender another security company had cautioned.

Related article: Phishing Attacks, Growing in Sophistication

» SPAMfighter News - 10/19/2012