Apple Store in Southern California Warning Customers About Fraudulent Phone Calls

[MacRumors]

Apple is warning customers who receive unsolicited phone calls claiming to be from the Apple Store at The Americana at Brand shopping complex in Glendale, California, as fraudsters appear to be posing as representatives of the store as part of a phishing scheme aimed at stealing customer information.

The following automated message plays when calling Apple The Americana:

Apple is aware that some customers are receiving unsolicited calls claiming to be from this Apple Store. If you receive an unsolicited call, you should not provide any information to the callers. For more information on cybercrime and ways to protect your computer, visit www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber. Also, if you feel you have been a victim of fraud, please contact your local police. If you would like help changing your Apple ID password, please visit support.apple.com.

Apple did not immediately respond to our question asking if any customer information has been compromised, but it did point us to a previous instance of this warning at its River Park Square store in Spokane, Washington in October 2017.

In that case, the local CBS affiliate KREM 2 reported that customers in Spokane received phone calls from a number that appeared to be the local Apple Store, advising they talk to a "support advisor" who informed customers about a false "breach in cloud security" in an attempt to steal their information.

Our understanding is that Apple temporarily adds this automated message to stores associated with an increase in fraudulent behavior in an effort to protect customers. Apple is far from the only company affected by phishing schemes and offers several tips on how to avoid being victimized.

Apple advises customers who receive an unsolicited call from someone claiming to be from Apple to hang up and contact Apple directly.

This is an opportune moment to remind everyone that phishing attacks can also be in the form of emails, so be very careful when you receive an email that claims to be from Apple, especially if prompted to provide your password or other information. Be sure to contact Apple if you are uncertain about any email.

Article Link: Apple Store in Southern California Warning Customers About Fraudulent Phone Calls

 

[DrJohnnyN]

Scammers are a sad breed.

 

[farewelwilliams]

i get 4-5 spam calls a day. iOS 13 needs to copy Google's screen call feature.

 

[Populus]

I'm receiving A LOT of fake Apple e-mails. All started 5-6 months ago.
This e-mails really seem like are from Apple, but nope, they are phishing mails.

I get one every 3-6 weeks, and I talked with Apple about this because this is a serious issue (regular, non-techie people will probably bite the bait). They confirmed it was phishing, and told me how to report them. I report them always, but I don't know where the security hole is, where this companies learned that this e-mail adress is actually an Apple ID

 

[Xian Zhu Xuande]

My old man called me about three days ago asking what to do after having received one of these phone calls. Of note he lives in Utah and has no connection to California. I would imagine these calls are targeting people across the nation, not unlike similar phishing calls which discuss "your credit card" or "your Chase account"—some sort of language which applies to a signifiant number of people who might be on the receiving end of a random phone call.

 

[macguru212]

This phishing thing is out of hand - not just with Apple, but with spoofed numbers in general.

 

[arkhanjel]

i get 4-5 spam calls a day. iOS 13 needs to copy Google's screen call feature.

Something needs to be done, but I don't think that will help against the number spoofing. I have noticed more and more AT&T alerts on some calls now with either the telemarketer or scam warning. Those have been a nice addition. I'm sure all the carriers do this but maybe they should all do more of it.

 

[JetTester]

Something needs to be done, but I don't think that will help against the number spoofing. I have noticed more and more AT&T alerts on some calls now with either the telemarketer or scam warning. Those have been a nice addition. I'm sure all the carriers do this but maybe they should all do more of it.

Verizon doesn't show alerts. Wish they would. This number spoofing is so out of hand that I never answer a call unless it is from a number in my contacts list. If it is legit, they'll leave a message.

 

[NMBob]

i get 4-5 spam calls a day. iOS 13 needs to copy Google's screen call feature.

I bought one of the SE's a month ago that they were clearancing as my *first* cell phone...ok, mobile phone. I've already blocked eight numbers and I haven't even called anyone on it yet, except for my office phone six feet away to activate the Verizon account. This is just stupid.

 

[dazz87]

Dont have to worry cause I never pick up if I don't recognized the number.

 

[iapplelove]

I had scammers even using Apples phone number and it shows Apple calling on my caller ID...
[doublepost=1552595342][/doublepost]

Dont have to worry cause I never pick up if I don't recognized the number.

I do the same, but they spoof numbers easily

 

[kazmac]

New York stores should follow suit. I had two instances of scammers pretending to call from the Grand Central store and once I reported these to Apple those scammers stop.

The general iCloud scammers come out in full force when I buy an Apple product. I just hang up or do not answer.

 

[csurfr]

Verizon doesn't show alerts. Wish they would. This number spoofing is so out of hand that I never answer a call unless it is from a number in my contacts list. If it is legit, they'll leave a message.

Yep, and as soon as they don’t leave a message I block the number. The only problem is that they are spoofing the caller ID, so we will never be able to stop them no matter how many numbers we block.

It’s so far out of hand that the carriers need to be held responsible at this point. Maybe then they’ll get off their a** and do something about it.

 

[KPandian1]

Apple should not have a single outgoing robo-call (automated message) call in its customer service gun-hill. In its entire organization - stop.

 

[farewelwilliams]

Something needs to be done, but I don't think that will help against the number spoofing. I have noticed more and more AT&T alerts on some calls now with either the telemarketer or scam warning. Those have been a nice addition. I'm sure all the carriers do this but maybe they should all do more of it.

it should screen those calls too. i'm thinking: screen all calls except for those on my contacts list. it'll be hard for a scammer to figure out who is on my contacts list and spoof that exact number.

 

[miketcool]

Glendale is frequently the number one city in America for credit card fraud and identity theft.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Dont have to worry cause I never pick up if I don't recognized the number.

Joke’s on you then, you must have missed that call from the Prince of Nigeria to release millions of dollars into your account!

Good timing too, because my bank account just got drained somehow.

 

[FloatingBones]

How about Apple issuing fake (i.e., honeypot) logins to a subset of customers. When a scammer calls, give them the fake login.

I wish that credit card companies would do this to the "lower my credit card rate" scammers. Give us honeypot numbers to take out these robocalling idiots.

 

[star_nerdy]

Something needs to be done, but I don't think that will help against the number spoofing. I have noticed more and more AT&T alerts on some calls now with either the telemarketer or scam warning. Those have been a nice addition. I'm sure all the carriers do this but maybe they should all do more of it.

It is fixable and it’s easy. Any phone that’s not a registered business with a carrier who has x-amount of calls in a minute has calls stopped until they speak to the carrier.

Then, charge more for calls on a sliding scale where after you make a certain amount of calls, they spike in price.

There is no reason a consumer should be making 100 calls a minute so end that.

It’s not hard, it’s just a wilingnless to act.

 

[stamphead]

My parents get these calls from "Appie, Inc." multiple times a day every few months on their landline. I picked up the phone one day and let the guy have it. Of course it was pointless. He hung up on me.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Houston store plays same message.

 

[MoreRumors?]

Dont have to worry cause I never pick up if I don't recognized the number.

I totally agree with you and everyone else should do the same. If it is important, they can leave a voicemail and you can research the validity of the call at your time and choosing to decide whether the call is legit or not.

 

[calzon65]

It is fixable and it’s easy. Any phone that’s not a registered business with a carrier who has x-amount of calls in a minute has calls stopped until they speak to the carrier.

Then, charge more for calls on a sliding scale where after you make a certain amount of calls, they spike in price.

There is no reason a consumer should be making 100 calls a minute so end that.

It’s not hard, it’s just a wilingnless to act.

I work in telecom and there is not a simple or easy fix.

Virtually all the "spoofers" are calling from VoIP lines outside the USA, not cell phones. Their cost of calling into the USA is many fractions of a penny so their calling activity is on the rise because their total costs (labor and network costs) are very low, and they are outside the jurisdiction of the countries they are calling.

They also rotate their termination (i.e., the route their calls take) through hundreds of carriers on a dynamic basis (i.e., they use many different routes to make their calls so catching them is also very difficult). They spoof (i.e., fake) their caller ID so there is no way to "tie" them to a business or even an address.

Sure, if you have the resources of the NSA or CIA that's a different story, they have amazing resources, but the NSA and CIA are not in the business of stopping spoofers.

The FCC had a competition awhile back where they awarded a prize to any company that could create an application to reduce these kinds of calls. The company that won the competition was called Nomorobo. I use their app on my iPhone and it's also integrated with my home VoIP phone from my cable company, Spectrum. I'm sure there are other companies that have a similar app, so I would check out these kinds of solutions to reduce (they won't eliminate) these calls.

 

[JPSaltzman]

Oh, yes, like who has time to write down a web address while listening to a monotone recorded voice mail?

 

[charlituna]

Dont have to worry cause I never pick up if I don't recognized the number.

Same. If there’s not a name cause its in my contacts, it goes to voicemail. And even then a lot of my calls go to voice mail. I’ll call you back.