Jim Rossman: Read your messages closely and don’t click those links

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

I received a text from my mom before 8 a.m. today.

“Jim, is this a scam?”

She attached a screenshot of an email she’d received earlier. The email looked like it was from Apple. The subject was: Apple Pay Suspension: Invalid Address Detected.

It read, “Verify Your Apple ID Information,” followed by “We’ve Temporary Restrict your Apple ID Access and Apple Pay Service.”

My first instinct was SCAM. I was right.

The first clue was the bad grammar in the first line. It really did say “We’ve Temporary Restrict your Apple ID Access…”

The message continued, “W‌e regret to inform you t͏hat your account has b͏een d‌isabled as a result of violating our policy and terms of s͏ervice. Our system detected an unauthorized attempt by individuals to impersonate your AppIe ID account.”

Below was a blue button labeled “Go to Apple ID”

I had mom forward the actual email message to me. Her original query just had a screenshot of her mail window, just showing me the first few paragraphs.

When I received the email, the header information showed the return address was an address that ended in @minilib.net.

The button to supposedly change your Apple ID information supplied in the email took me to a page that had already been taken down.

Mom had a suspicion the message was fake because she doesn’t use Apple Pay and doesn’t have a payment method stored for her Apple account.

Coincidentally, mom also received an actual email from Apple the following day.

The second message really was from Apple. It read, “Let’s check up on your Apple Account.”

This message was full of reminders on how users can keep their Apple account safe. Instead of some random domain, this message came from apple.com and it included links to help you learn about the various ways you can keep your Apple account secured, including links to show you how to keep your contact information up-to-date, how to reset your password and how to set up a legacy contact, who is someone you can designate to access your iCloud files after your death.

The takeaway today is please don’t click on links in random emails, even if they sound menacing. In this case, you might go check on your Apple account by logging in through your iPhone or Mac and not using any links in the email.

The same advice goes for messages that look like they come from Google or your bank or anywhere else where you might have your account information stolen.