Identifying Phishing Scams in text messages

MissNikkiz wrote:

I got a message saying that 42 people called complaining that my number came up in a spam

Spam. Lies. Delete it. Move on with the rest of your day.

Me Too - first checked my apply card and no charges on it - then logged into my apple account to check charge history - the give away was the from phone number was from the Philippines (+64) - but the website in the test was legit - never called the provided phone number because that would give them a legit calling number for me - boy they are getting good

I looked up the number that was left for me to call back – 855–775–****–support.apple.com/billing in the amount one 143.95. I turned off my phone setting to not show my Caller ID and when I called that number it rang about 10 times and then a male answered with “Apple Support” and the line was very noisy. I just said sorry I called the wrong number and hung up so I never did click on the link or anything because I have become super suspicious of emails like this.

[Edited by Moderator]

try2guess wrote:

I looked up the number that was left for me to call back – 855–775–****–support.apple.com/billing in the amount one 143.95. I turned off my phone setting to not show my Caller ID and when I called that number it rang about 10 times and then a male answered with “Apple Support” and the line was very noisy. I just said sorry I called the wrong number and hung up so I never did click on the link or anything because I have become super suspicious of emails like this.

It's a scam. Delete it and move on.

I keep getting these messages:

“Critical Alert: Spam taking over your phone? Your iPhone is under attack. Resolve it here: 901b43k.irilemo.info”. I have reported it at least a hundred times! What do I do to get rid of them? Please help me!

Millions of people get it; these scams are a major business, bringing in $billions to the perpetrators. Here’s an article about it→https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/01/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-prolific-voice-phishing-crew/

TiredOfDishonestApple wrote:

This is the text message I received yesterday from 1-850-xxx-xxxx:

Your Apple ID was used to make a $155.90 purchase at the Apple Store via Apple Pay . If you didn't authorize this, call Apple Support at  (888) xxx xxxx

::SIGH:: Didn’t you read ANY of the posts in this thread. That is a SCAM MESSAGE and is not from Apple. And neither phone number is Apple’s. If you call either one you will be tricked into handing over the keys to the kingdom; essentially your Apple ID & password, thus giving away all of your private information and risking bricking your iPhone.

[Edited by Moderator]

I just got the same text from a strange email address: When I called the 802 number, the guy on the phone said the 143.95 charge was going to a dark website — basically causing panic. He then told me to download the Connectwise Control app — that has a really poor user rating and he would walk me through the steps on how to remove hen hacks. Regardless I’m letting my credit union know to be on the look pit for any charges out of state. I didn’t give the guy a lot of information.

MaxMom322 wrote:

I just got the same text from a strange email address: When I called the 802 number, the guy on the phone said the 143.95 charge was going to a dark website — basically causing panic. He then told me to download the Connectwise Control app — that has a really poor user rating and he would walk me through the steps on how to remove hen hacks. Regardless I’m letting my credit union know to be on the look pit for any charges out of state. I didn’t give the guy a lot of information.

If you provided remote access into it, the contents of your Mac were probably pillaged. There's not a whole lot you can do about un-pillaging whatever was done there, other than restoring a backup from prior to the access, and changing all of your passwords, including your email server passwords, and your Apple Account passwords.

Without intending offense, you need to work on your skepticism, too.

"DARK WEB", "HACKER", "VIRUS", anything you're reading that includes any of those words is best assumed to be a fraud, a scam, or entertainment, until proven otherwise.

I too just received this text on 1/15/25:

Your Apple ID was used to make a $155.90 purchase at the Apple Store via Apple Pay . If you didn't authorize this, call Apple Support at +1 (8*8) **9 ***2

Upon copying & pasting the text here and noticing the typo of the space after Pay before the period tells me everything I need to know that this is a bs scam.

[Edited by Moderator]

iHolly43 wrote:

I too just received this text on 1/15/25:

Your Apple ID was used to make a $155.90 purchase at the Apple Store via Apple Pay . If you didn't authorize this, call Apple Support at +1 (8*8) **9 ***2

Upon copying & pasting the text here and noticing the typo of the space after Pay before the period tells me everything I need to know that this is a bs scam.

[Edited by Moderator]

Yeah, there’s the “pervert” and other sextortion scams, the “(3) viruses detected!” scams, the so-called “pig butchering” and other romance scams, your “arrested” relative needs help making bail, incessant barrages of two factor code account take-over scams, endemic counterfeit devices on offer, and all sorts of bogus bills.

Reddit has an endless supply of example scams: https://reddit.com/r/scams

Welcome to 2025.

PS: Apple recently renamed Apple ID to Apple Account, so there’ll be a brief fleeting moment when the Apple scams are really easy to pick out. Until the scammers catch up with the new name.

sarausername wrote:

Same. Just received the exact same. Literally identical. They're still scamming.

Yes, they are, because it works well enough to generate billions of dollars in revenue from people who fail to realize it is a scam (that is not an exaggeration, by the way). I’m glad to see that you recognize a scam when you see one.

WOW, I too just received a text " We have noticed that your Apple iCloud id was recently used at "APPLE STORE-CA" for $ 143.95, paid by Apple Pay Pre-Authorization. Also some suspicious sign in request detected. yada yada yada, keeps going on and wants you to call some +1 828xxxxxxx number.. I knew this was a scam BECAUSE,, I do not use Apple Pay and have no payment platform set up on my phone. Also the phone number is not correct for U.S.A.. It is comfort to see 'other' people report on this and yes, ironically the same dollar amount is listed. I just hope that individuals that 'use' Apple Pay do not fall for this.

[Edited by Moderator]

pfhughes wrote:

The phone number on this scam text is a Hawaiian area code. Hmm!

The calling numbers shown are not those of the sender, just as the sending email addresses are not those of the sender. They’re fakes, or they’re appropriated-by-the-spammer real addresses of somebody else unrelated.

If the calling numbers were real, or if the sending email addresses were real, they could be easily blocked.

In some cases, the numbers or addresses are real, but they’re not the spammer’s. The sending numbers or sending email addresses can be associated with some unrelated-to-the-spam-itself person that the spammer wants to get others to harass and bombard with angry replies and “unsubscribe” me replies. Basically, some spammers use the anger of the recipients to harass somebody.

Or the spammer will send manufactured information — propaganda, lies, whatever — intended to turn the recipients against the sender, or to fleece the recipient, all by forging the sending info, and quite possibly also by posting similarly false websites and embedded links. Politics, propaganda, manipulation, fraud, all sorts of motivations to lie. Phishing mail and other sorts of fraud also works like this, including with well-crafted fake “login portal” websites, too.

I had somebody forge one of my email addresses in their spam runs years ago, and I got immense numbers of returned email message errors from misconfigured email servers, and errors and replies and for days, and that from a much smaller spam run and from a much smaller internet. The computer spent all its time just receiving the backwash of that spam.

You can trust certainly, but verify. We’re all unfortunately swimming in fraudulent email and SMS messages, and in the ever-increasing tsunami of AI-generated text spewage.

MrHoffman wrote:

You can trust certainly, but verify. We’re all unfortunately swimming in fraudulent email and SMS messages, and in the ever-increasing tsunami of AI-generated text spewage.

This isn’t new. Around 20 years ago a close friend who was writing a techno-thriller asked (by email) if it was possible for someone to send an email that appeared to be from his protagonist Jon Knox, but was actually from a agent of a secret organization. My reply to him came from Jon Knox.