There are a lot of great safety features and settings available for iPhone users these days, but unfortunately, they can’t protect you from everything.
As technology advances, more convenient tools are becoming available to users, but sadly, scams and tech used to trick people are expanding as well. Just like devices, ways to scam and spam smartphone users have gotten harder to detect for many. While you can set up ways to prevent as many spam calls and emails as possible, there are still some you can’t always dodge, and a tech expert wants to warn users against one of today’s most modern, commonly used iPhone scams. Read more about what they had to say below.
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A Modern Scam iPhone Users Should Be Aware Of
Those growing up in today's digital age are learning a lot about how to avoid some common and well-known scams, like calls from unknown numbers, texts with suspicious links, and emails from people posing as your bank or other services.
However, this means that the malicious people and organizations behind these scams aren't developing new ways to attempt to trick iPhone users.
More recently, they've found ways to work through apps, even popular ones that are commonly downloaded by high numbers of iPhone users. Angie Waller of Graphika, an intelligence specialist who analyzes scams and fraud online, is walking iPhone users through one of today's commonly reported scams. It takes place in the Shop app, a popular shopping app with all sorts of purchasing and tracking features for users.
"One scam iPhone users have recently reported appears in the Shop app, where fraudsters pose as legitimate stores and send fake order confirmations for iTunes gift cards," she explains. "The message includes a customer service number to call if you didn't make the purchase, but that number routes to the scammers themselves. This is a technique known as vishing, or voice phishing, and the callback number is the trap. Once you call, the goal is either to extract personal or financial information or to walk you through reading out gift card codes to 'cancel' the transaction."
If you use the app or have gotten similar 'order confirmation emails' from other suspicious addresses, the goal is to always try to reach out to a reliable source first, according to Waller.
"The best defense is to never call a number provided in an unsolicited notification," she adds. "If you're genuinely concerned about a charge, go directly to the retailer's official website or your bank's app to verify it. A quick check of your actual bank account will show that there was no charge to begin with."
