Apple: Watch out iCloud users – consumer advocates warn of scams

If sensitive data – for example payment details – is given online, scammers are often not far away. To get to it and eventually use the data for themselves, they use various scams over and over again. These are often structured in such a way that they cannot be immediately recognized as an attempted fraud.

Sending so-called phishing emails has become a popular method. These are fake emails that the scammers send on behalf of someone else, for example a company. Anyone using Apple’s iCloud service should be especially careful at this point.

Scammers claim iCloud storage extension

As the German Consumer Advice Center reports, there have been a lot of phishing emails in the past week with the subject “Your iCloud storage is full No. ‹any seven-digit number›” was sent. Particularly insidious: this is somehow regularly used by Apple itself. However, this is not an official email, but an attempted fraud where the recipient clearly intends to reveal their credit card information.

There is talk of a “loyalty program” that would make it possible to get “an additional 50 GB for free”. The phishing email also puts pressure on the recipient. It is explained that without adequate storage expansion, the current files on iCloud Drive would be deleted. This extension is available via an attached button. It is noted in the fine print that your own credit card information must be entered for validation after registration.

You should

For the consumer center it is clear: this is “clearly an attempted fraud with the aim of intercepting your personal credit card information”. This is supported by the “dubious sender address” and also the presentation of the mail, which the consumer center called unprofessional.

Anyone who received the email should not click the button. Instead, as always, the email belongs unanswered in the spam folder.

The Consumer Advice Center regularly warns about current phishing emails in its phishing radar. In addition to large companies such as Apple, customers of streaming providers and especially banks are often affected.