ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A new twist on an old scam is fooling people across the country because it appears as a pop-up message on iPhone lock screens.
Barbara Dunn, a Rochester resident, was watching TV with her cell phone in hand when she got a suspicious message on her lock screen.
“It just popped up out of nowhere and it said, ‘Your Apple ID is being used for this purchase and please call this number to freeze it,'” Dunn said.
“And it just popped up on the screen. That’s why I thought it was believable,” Dunn said.
The pop-up message on her iPhone lock screen directed her to call 844-498-3262. News10NBC consumer investigative reporter Deanna Dewberry did a quick Google search for the number and the first listing looked authentic — it said, “Contact Official Apple.” But the domain was not apple.com. It was a site called amplifyapp.com, an Amazon Web Services site for developers.
The scammers are using this legitimate company to build a site they named “Official Apple” so that victims will find it when Googling the phone number. This common scam technique is called “Search Poisoning.”
“And I was worried. I use my Apple ID for everything so I immediately called,” said Dunn.. “But after talking with them for about five minutes they wanted me to download a certain app and the app would help me stop the payment,” Dunn said.
Scammers often ask victims to download a tool like TeamViewer, giving them remote access to the device and everything on it — bank apps, digital wallets and more.
“And then he connected me to someone who would take my financial information. And so I said no,” Dunn said.
When Dewberry asked Dunn if she told the scammer her name, Dunn said no. But the scammer already knew her name.
This is another common scammer technique. It makes the scammers appear legitimate because they already have a victim’s name or other personal information, usually stolen in a data breach. But Dunn didn’t fall for it and instead contacted News10NBC.
“That’s why I thought you should know so you can tell other people,” Dunn said.
There are several ways that scammers can make these scam push notifications appear on phones. The most common is using a web browser notification. It happens when users inadvertently approve the notification when browsing a sketchy website. That enables scammers to send a push notification that looks like an urgent message from Apple.
If you have any questions, you should call Apple customer service directly at 800-275-2273.
Consumer Alert: New version of an old scam targets iPhone users WHEC.com.
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