More than 8,700 new iPhone 14-themed phishing websites have surfaced in the last few weeks, trying to trick unsuspecting readers. The spectrum of fraud is large. There are scammers who advertise alleged iPhone 14 prices and only want your data, there are data thieves and malware spreaders.
Does that surprise you? Cyber criminals always look for a topic that their victims will be gullible and careless about. Spam e-mails are often sent and fake advertisements booked via Google Ads. Now is high season!
iPhone 14 is the hot topic
“Cyber criminals are constantly monitoring new trends and looking for hot topics that interest users and can therefore be used as bait to trick them into entering credentials or payment details,” comments Olga Svistunova, security researcher at Kaspersky. “The presentation of the new iPhone 14 is no exception. We see increased activity from attackers every year around the annual release of new iPhone models.”
Kaspersky security experts explain in one blog post on the topic exactly what tricks hackers and co. use to do this.
A scam that is currently widespread and actually even less well known is so-called vishing. This stands for voice phishing. In doing so, cyber gangsters send messages to their victims’ smartphones stating that “Access to this Apple device has been blocked due to illegal activity”. You caught these notifications beforehand via a specially manipulated website. The next message then gives the all-clear: If you call a fake Apple support number, they can have your device unlocked again.
Vishing aims to trick victims into calling cybercriminals and giving out personal and banking information over the phone, and surprisingly it works extremely well.
The focus of the fraud attempts is on iPhone users. Unknown people try to get Apple ID and passwords from you. According to Kaspersky, blackmail attempts will follow in the next steps, for example with photos from your iCloud.
Have you ever heard of such a scam from your circle of acquaintances or did you accidentally end up on fake lotteries? Please tell us about your experiences in the comments!
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Tag: iphone design, iphone 14, apple iphone, iphone release