scam alert
Look in your inbox. Chances are you have at least one email advising you that your online account with (fill in the blank) has been compromised. Most of the time it's just "phishing", but sometimes...
Last week Drew got a series of emails purportedly from Apple: "a new device logged into your account"; "your Apple ID password has been changed"; "you made an in-app purchase"; "your Apple ID has been suspended for suspicious activity".
He showed them to me, and they looked very real. Still, I never click on the links in that kind of email, so I went to Apple's website and logged into his account.
And sadly, it was all too real. Someone in Malaysia had hacked into his acount and made almost $200 in in-app purchases.
So I called Apple, and they deleted the fraudulent charges. We removed the offending iPhone from the account, changed the pssword and security questions, and thought we had the problem solved.
Until this morning. More in-app purchases from Malaysia. Another call to Apple, another password change, and this time we also turned on two-step authentication.
An hour later, someone from Inner Mongolia tried -- unsuccessfuly -- to hack into the account.
Problem solved.
For now.
Last week Drew got a series of emails purportedly from Apple: "a new device logged into your account"; "your Apple ID password has been changed"; "you made an in-app purchase"; "your Apple ID has been suspended for suspicious activity".
He showed them to me, and they looked very real. Still, I never click on the links in that kind of email, so I went to Apple's website and logged into his account.
And sadly, it was all too real. Someone in Malaysia had hacked into his acount and made almost $200 in in-app purchases.
So I called Apple, and they deleted the fraudulent charges. We removed the offending iPhone from the account, changed the pssword and security questions, and thought we had the problem solved.
Until this morning. More in-app purchases from Malaysia. Another call to Apple, another password change, and this time we also turned on two-step authentication.
An hour later, someone from Inner Mongolia tried -- unsuccessfuly -- to hack into the account.
Problem solved.
For now.
Wow. Scary. For me, those emails usually go to the email addresses that aren't connected to whatever it is they're purporting to be from, so I easily ignore. I'm glad that at least you were notified and able to do something about it.
ReplyDeleteOur cell account (major carrier, not saying whom) was hacked twice. The second time, my phone suddenly wasn't working. Finally, after tech support did all kinds of things without success, they wanted me to go to my nearest cell carrier store which he helpfully gave me the address of - almost 1000 miles from where I live. Uh Oh, and I told him that. The tech then said, "so your email is "(notevenclose.com)?" I said no. Several hours on the phone with the fraud unit ensued - on my birthday, no less. Those kind folks bought almost $1000 of iPhones on our dime, and it took us months to get the charges reversed. After that, we put verification on where if we go into the store, we have to show our drivers licenses and another form of ID. I hope your info is not on the dark web. Yikes. Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteWe all have to worry about it, don't we?
ReplyDelete