Regular Internet users, entrepreneurs, and entire companies suffer from phishing attacks. And this type of cybercrime is the most insidious – scammers disguise themselves as popular companies.
What is a Phishing Attack?
Phishing is a type of Internet fraud used to get user identification data. It is used to steal passwords, card numbers, bank accounts, and other confidential information.
As a rule, a phishing attack is the issuance of fake sites that falsify the web pages of popular companies: social networks, online stores, streaming services. Hackers rely on the fact that the user will not notice the fake and will indicate his personal data on the page. If a person really does this, the scammers will get his data.
The Most Common Types of a Phishing Attack
There are lots of different ways scammers use to make you share your personal data with them or give them your money. The most common are the following:
– You get fabricated correspondence that looks very much the same like those sent by realistic companies, including Apple.
– Deceitful popup windows and advertisements telling you about a safety problem on your device.
– Fraud calls or voicemails that pretend to be Apple Support or VPN client mac.
– False advertising campaigns that propose products and gifts for free.
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The Ways to Protect Your Macbook from Phishing
The main problem with phishing is that there is no software that can protect people and companies: fake sites are difficult to distinguish from the originals. It all depends on the potential victim – how attentive the victim will be, whether the person will recognize the fake.
Everything is decided by the human factor: even the largest technology companies are vulnerable. Even though there are some useful tips that you can follow in order to protect your device against apple id scam emails and know what to do in case of getting a distrustful letter or a phone call. In order to skip from scams that might attack your Apple account and devices follow the next important steps:
– when you are not sure 100% of the recipient, do not give your personal information like credit card numbers.
– use a VPN for Mac. A VPN client Mac encrypts your data through the VPN servers. With VeePN you can become completely anonymous online. So any infected links or hacking attacks can not hurt your sensitive data.
– make sure that your Apple ID is protected. Check if there is two-factor authentication in your device, control that your control details are effectively protected and actualized, and never tell anyone what your password and authentication codes are. Remember that Apple will never want to get this information from you.
– avoid using Apple Gift Cards as the means of paying for something.
– when downloading programs be sure that you are doing that only from reliable and trustworthy sites.
– if you are not sure about the source of any link or an attachment, never click or open them.
How to Report Suspicious Emails, Messages, and Calls
- If you open your email and see a doubtful letter that looks as if it was sent by Apple, do not open it but resend it to [email protected]
- In case you found a doubtful SMS text message that looks as if it was sent by Apple, take a screen grab of the message and forward it to [email protected]
- If you found some distrustful emails in your iCloud.com, me.com, or mac.com Inbox, forward them to [email protected] and then block email on mac.
How Do I Prevent Phishing?
Predicting the actions of scammers is not always easy. If you do not allow yourself to get carried away and calmly consider each and especially suspicious message, checking several elements of it, you have a chance of not becoming a victim of phishing. What to do to prevent phishing attacks?
– Check the address of the page the link leads to
Particular attention in e-mail messages should be given to the addresses of the pages to which they link. You don’t have to click on them to see where they take you. Just hover your mouse over the link and wait for the browser or email program to display the URL hidden underneath the text. Particular attention should be paid to sites that are not related to the service provided.
– Requesting sensitive and confidential data is always a scam
The basic principle of security in electronic communication between service providers and their customers is not to send confidential data in correspondence. If you are asked to enter a username and password for service because your account has been locked or something similar, you can be sure that the message was sent by criminals.
– Beware of attachments
Criminals also use malware to steal sensitive data or hack into computers and entire networks. The mechanism of action is the same and is limited to an attempt to convince the victim to open a malicious attachment.
