iPhone owners in the UK are being warned to protect their personal data after being targeted by a large number of phishing campaigns.
In recent months an increasing amount of elaborate attacks have attempted to trick iPhone owners into revealing their user names and passwords, reports the Daily Star.
According to security researchers at FireEye nearly 90 phishing domains have been logged since January – and the problem is only getting worse.
Log-in details can be combined with stolen credit card information to make purchases on the Apple Store and Apple users have reported receiving text messages claiming to be from iTunes warning them that their account had been frozen.
In one message featuring official Apple branding – as well as the user’s name – they were told to revalidate their iTunes account and avoid suspension by following a link.
And in a different scam, iPhone owners also received an iMessage claiming to be from Apple iSupport warning users their iCloud account was about to expire.
According to the Daily Star, FireEye traced the IP addresses of the fraudulent pages and found the majority were located within the UK.
In response to the dodgy accounts, Apple has issued a message on its website stating:
The iTunes Store will never ask you to provide personal information or sensitive account information (such as passwords or credit card numbers) via email.
Email messages that contain attachments or links to non-Apple websites are from sources other than Apple, although they may appear to be from the iTunes Store.
Most often, these attachments are malicious and should not be opened. You should never enter your Apple account information on any non-Apple website.
So there you go – as a general rule if it looks suspicious – it probably is. Better to be safe than sorry.
