Warning: New iPhone scam tries to steal your Apple login

To savvy young users who have spent their entire lives surrounded by modern technology, many phishing scams seem silly. They often wonder how anyone could fall for something that seems to obvious. Of course, not everyone has lived their entire lives with this kind of tech surrounding them, so they can sometimes fall victim to scams that can be extremely difficult to remedy. As such, it’s important to always be on the lookout for new scams and bring them to people’s attention. By warning your friends and family, you may be able to save them from a serious headache. And today, we’ve caught wind of a new phishing scheme that you should definitely try to warn people about.

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Earlier this week, a user on Reddit started a thread to discuss a new phishing scam that has been gaining momentum. We’ve also received a few emails about it over the past week, so it’s clearly time to issue a warning to ensure that none of our readers fall victim to this scam. More importantly, you should use this as an opportunity to give your less savvy friends and family members a heads up.

Messages are being send via SMS to iPhone users warning them that their “iPhoneID” is set to expire. In order to “prevent loss of services and apps,” users are urged to click a link where they’ll be asked to enter their login credentials. Again, many of us are well aware that there is no such thing as an iPhoneID, but others may see this message and act on it without thinking. After all, no one wants to be locked out of his or her account.

The message is sent via SMS, but the caller ID is spoofed as “iMessage.” Since incoming texts and iMessages both appear gray in Apple’s Messages app, it would be easy to mistake the message for many people. Clicking the link takes the user to a page where he or she is asked to log in with their Apple ID. If entered, the credentials are saved by the scammers, who could use them to steal private data or gain control of a user’s account and demand a ransom.

We’ve seen plenty of scams like this in the past, and we’ll see many more in the future. As long as people keep falling for them, scammers will continue their efforts. Knowledge and awareness are our best defense, so all of us should do our part to warn people who might otherwise fall victim to these schemes.

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See the original version of this article on BGR.com