“Last week we warned that people be aware of potential Christmas scams, especially those involving Apple’s products as the company has become exceptionally popular in the past few years,” Topher Kessler reports for CNET.
“While the scam I mentioned in our previous warning was laughably fake, apparently a number of Apple customers have found a new e-mail scam circulating that gives the appearance of being quite genuine,” Kessler reports. “The e-mail appears well-formatted with proper grammar, and is styled with shading and official-looking links, addresses, and copyright marks. The message also claims to come from an official looking e-mail address ‘appleid@id.apple.com.'”
Kessler reports, “According to Intego this scam is apparently quite widespread, and is intended to target people who have new Macs, iPhones, and other Apple products that might have been purchased this Christmas season. The best way to avoid any scam like this is to absolutely never click a link in an e-mail message, even if you think the e-mail is legitimate. Instead, go to the company Web site directly and use the resources on its Web site to update your account or access the features requested in the email.”
Read more in the full article here.
Notice how Intego pointed at the URL and the header but omitted pointing out the missing security *lock icon* in the top right corner? Gosh, It’s a dead giveaway – and the reason why Apple places it there *for easy reference*. But no, Intego wants to spread fear by making it seem sooo complicated. Maybe then you’ll buy their worthless crap.
Does Apple ALWAYS use SSL? Or someday the hoaxers get smart and use SSL?
The lock is just one of several things to look for, and, in my opinion, not one of the more important ones.
Most important is the links in the message, which you can see by hovering your mouse pointer over the link (at least for Macs).
I have seen these in my in box for quite some time. I noticed the address and told Apple Mail to always junk it. Warned all my friends.
This must have been 2 or more months ago.