Personal Account Suspended please fix
“Personal Account Suspended please fix it” is how the latest piece of spam email targeting Apple users begins. Unlike yesterday’s somewhat confused phishing email, we can categorically state that this phishing email is targeting Apple users. Seems that the recipient’s account has been suspended; the email implores the user to “fix it”.
We have reproduced an example of the email in Figure A. It is a little easier to read than yesterday’s spam. The email subject line (as mentioned) is “Personal Account Suspended please fix it”. The sender of the email is listed as “Apple ID”. The email greeting used is “Dear Customer”. The reason for the email is that the users’ Apple ID “has been used to open a session iCloud from an unauthorized computer”. As a consequence, the user is informed, their “iTunes account is now locked”. To resolve this issue the user is invited to click on a link that will restore access. The email contains a single link with the text “Confirm Now”. The email has a single Apple logo fixed to the bottom of the email.
This email is a moderately complex phishing email. Unlike some other emails that feature several genuine links and one or two links to phishing sites, this email has just one link, which is back to a malicious site. The subject line of the email could alarm recipients, and the statement implying the user has been hacked may trick some people into clicking on the link. The well publicised case of Jennifer Lawrence and the possible hacking of her iCloud account may also play on people’s minds. These are social engineering tricks that criminals use to entice people to click on links.
The email is of course a fake. It is not personalised, and the sole link contained in the email leads to a fake Apple site. This site is designed to steal the user’s Apple ids with the intention to commit fraud. Delete this email if you receive it.
Scott Reeves
MailShark
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