Fraudulent Use of Apple Store Gift Cards – Case ID: 1*******1

I would like to bring to your attention a serious incident involving a fraudulent message I received from an individual impersonating our company’s CEO .

On June 9, 2025, I received a WhatsApp call from an international number: +*********. The call rang briefly and was disconnected. Shortly after, I received a text from the same number. The sender introduced himself as the CEO claimed he was currently on a conference call, which prevented him from speaking. He urgently requested assistance in providing Apple Store gift cards for some clients in India and asked whether these could be purchased via PhonePe or Amazon.in.

Since I was aware that our CEO was on a business trip to the United States and considering the urgency and professionalism of the message, I did not initially doubt its authenticity. The situation was presented as critical, and the impersonator skillfully mimicked the tone and urgency one might expect from a senior executive.

Believing the request to be genuine, I checked for the availability of Apple Store gift cards and proceeded to purchase three Apple Store vouchers, each worth ₹10,000 (total ₹30,000) via Amazon.in. The gift cards were ordered and delivered to my secondary email ID: h*********@gmail.com. I then shared the codes with the sender, who also provided a fake email ID with our CEO’s Credentials

Unfortunately, I later discovered that the request was a scam. Upon internal verification, it was confirmed that no such request had been made by the real CEO. By then, it was already too late—the scammer had redeemed the gift card codes.

I am bringing this matter to your attention to ensure proper documentation and to help prevent similar incidents in the future. I have already reported this incident to Apple Support, and my case ID is ********

I would greatly appreciate your guidance on the following:

The process to formally report the misuse of Apple gift cards

Whether there is any way to trace or block the redemption

Any possibility of recovering the redeemed value

Any internal escalation protocols or law enforcement procedures Apple recommends

Thank you for your assistance. Please let me know the next steps I should follow.

[Edited by Moderator]