4 Things to Protect Yourself Against Email Scams
You are checking your email and suddenly, an email similar to this caught your eye:
You panicked and quickly read the content, which looks something like this:
Oh no! Your account has been frozen and will be deleted!
Immediately, you clicked on the "My Apple Login" link to confirm your "account information", whatever that means.
STOP RIGHT THERE!!!!!
Look closely at the message. What do you see?
1) If it's about changes to the User Agreement, then why is my account frozen "in order to protect it"? Protect from what?
2) If it's about changes to the User Agreement, then why will my account be deleted within 24 hours if I don't confirm my account?
3) "My Apple Login" - Apple has been consistently using "Apple ID", not "Apple Login".
4) Third line "your account has been frozen..." - Should have been a capital "Y" in "your" as it's the beginning of a new sentence.
5) Ditto with "once you have..." right under "My Apple Login".
6) "once you have confirmed your account informations your account will start to work as normal once again." - That's just bad English: "account informations"?? "once...start to work as normal once again"??
7) If you are reading on a Mac, hover your mouse pointer over the "My Apple Login" which will cause the URL of site (the site it'll take you to if you click on the button) to be revealed. Almost 99.99% it won't be an Apple site.
I've been in the computer business for a long time and have seen enough email scams over the years. This is what I know about the scammers:
a) They try to make their emails look like they are from the real company but they don't pay enough attention to detail (and logic) - note the first 5 points above.
b) Their English has improved over the years but are still bad - note 6 above.
c) No decent company would delete your account within 24 hours without giving you plenty of warning. If they do, you don't want to do business with them anyway.
d) The dead giveaway is the link, in this instance, shows up straight away as a hoax:
The Bottom Line
1) Be suspicious when you receive emails like this.
2) Watch for bad English / grammar.
3) Find out what the URL it's sending you to, before you click it.
4) If you are not sure, DON'T DO ANYTHING. Seek help - or in this case, the scam email even asks you to "visit Apple Support".
4 Things to Protect Yourself Against Email Scams: https://t.co/RXmWWsEEv0
— Bevan Ting (@aByteofThePie) October 20, 2016