Apple Approval Notice text message scam

The dead giveaway was the text came from an individual’s iCloud email address!!!

REALLY!!???

[Edited by Moderator]

Scam call re: charges in CA of $143.95. It was not me.

Reporting all possible information to my bank. my bank.

Just got this same text and it’s still happening sent by fra****************41@gmail.com

spammed and reported!

[Edited by Moderator]

Well hopefully you noticed this is not

MY email but the frauds email so y’all can just block ahead of time. I wouldn’t share my own email in an open forum like this. I think that’s a given.

I got almost the same identical text message from a weird email:

Apple Approval Notice

We have noticed that your Apple iCloud id was recently used at "APPLE STORE - CA" for $143.95, paid by Apple Pay Pre Authorization. Also some suspicious sign in request and apple pay activation request detected. That looks like suspicious to us. In order to maintain the security and privacy of your account we have placed those request on hold. If NOT you? talk to an Apple Representative. Failing may lead to auto debit and charge will not be reversed. Call +1 88******** immediately to cancel this charge.

Billing Department : Subscriptions and Billing - Official Apple Support

Have a great day!

[Edited by Moderator]

I received same text today. Interesting that they are using the same $amount 🤦‍♀️. Anyway, I definitely didn’t click on the link. It looked suspicious. However I did call. Wanted to see if they answered and what was said. As soon as they wanted to verify who I was, I started asking questions. Then told them I wanted to look into a few things and then I’d call them back. I didn’t give them any information at all. None. Glad too

Me too!!

Apple Approval Notice

We have noticed that your Apple iCloud id was recently used at "APPLE STORE - CA" for $143.95, paid by Apple Pay Pre Authorization. Also some suspicious sign in request and apple pay activation request detected. That looks like suspicious to us. In order to maintain the security and privacy of your account we have placed those request on hold.  If NOT you? talk to an Apple Representative. Failing may lead to auto debit and charge will not be reversed. Call +1 8334****4* immediately to cancel this charge.

Billing Department

Have a great day!

SCAM!!

[Edited by Moderator]

christiane221 wrote:

I got this message today

joethinkley wrote:

got the same today 12/20/2024

It's SPAM! We all get spam.........every day. Don't take this the wrong way, but no one here is surprised you got spam and no one really cares. It's a fact of life, like death and taxes.

I also got this text message 6 Jan 2025. The message was from "mail@rambler.ru". That was the first of several suspicious elements. Also, I haven't been in California for over 30 years.

[Edited by Moderator]

Crazyhorses wrote:

1/7/25

I have received two suspicious Apple texts today. Of course they make it sound authentic and by supplying Apple links and threatening to process excessive charges they’re looking for our reaction.- well I did, but I continue to play stupid as I screenshot every screen that he was asking me to move to, every app that he was trying to revise or remove, the dollar amount for humongous… then he was asking me on another page where there was an email intending to send a gift card to change my name from sender replaced with Apple as sender… I desperately tried to find a voice memo recording app so that I could record his desperate, plea with me, nearly 1 hour on the phone- I could not find an app to record for the life of me… but he could see everything that I was doing… I told him to F* off and I’ve never received a notice from Apple, but he could rest assured that I would be going directly to Apple because I’m sure he’s trying to hack my account. He proceeded to scream and scream and scream into my phone while he was on mute for a clear total of 93 minutes and I have not powered off my phone. He would still be there…. Help

Why did you call them? Why did you stay on the phone? I guess everyone needs a hobby....

They are still sending this message in 2025. Exactly same amount of money but now they are saying APPLE STORE-CA which is closer to what my bank account actually calls the transactional organization. So they are getting better at it.

This scam is still going on. Just got this same text from "go*******krf@gmail.com" The message is updated, but it's the same old scam:

Apple Approval Notice

We have noticed that your Apple id was recently used at "APPLE STORE - CA" for $143.95, paid by Apple Pay Pre Authorization. Also some suspicious sign in request and apple pay activation request detected. That looks like suspicious to us. In order to maintain the security and privacy of your account we have placed those request on hold. Your Photos, Data, Bank Information and Cards are at risk. If NOT you? talk to an Apple Representative. Failing may lead to auto debit and charge will not be reversed. Call +1 8***67-**** immediately to cancel this charge.

[Edited by Moderator]

Momzor wrote:

This scam is still going on…

This and other scams will go on for years or decades.

There are weeks of dozens of “pervert” sextortion spam arriving, and other weeks with fewer copies.

Some basic scams go back a decade, and other scams go back centuries.

There are whole batches of “free money” scams recently targeting cryptocurrency wallets in videos posted around the net. Details of that particular means of theft might be newish, but the underlying “free money” scam goes back millennia.

If any scam works well enough, we’ll be stuck with it and variations for the foreseeable future, too.

prachikashyap wrote:

I received the same message today, and I’m glad my first instinct was to check Google. I’m also pleased they used the exact same amount. The message came from e********19@icloud.com.

Actually, that is not the email address it came from, that is a faked email address.