iTunes account phishing email

iTunes account phishing email

“Confirm your account!”  This is the heading of the latest phishing email aimed at iTunes users. It’s a powerful call to action. It’s also a fake. This email is not from Apple. It is from a phishing site. It can be deleted.

Figure A is the email in full. There is not much to it. A small Apple logo is at the top right of the email. The footer of the email has several genuine links to Apple. The greeting is “Dear member”. The email is listed as from “iTunes Support”. The email domain is very similar in appearance to Apple. It is appl-e. Other variations may be used. This is a method employed by cyber criminals to get around spam filters.

The subject line of the email is “Your account has been Iimited untiI we hear from your”. Both limited and until are spelt incorrectly. An “I” is used in both cases, rather than an l. There is one malicious link in the email. The link is the button with the text “Click Here to Update”.

MailShark iTunes account phishing email
Figure A – Click to Enlarge

One aspect of this email is odd. It looks to be half warning, half survey. The email closes off with “Thanks taking the time to share your thoughts”. It is possible that the email is recycled from older emails. The survey aspect appears again in the second last line, which states that “the survey will be available for a limited time”. The first part of the email however warns that the user needs to update their account information. Your account will be closed if you do not update your information.

Apart from being confusing, the email is a fake. There is no personalised greeting. There are spelling mistakes. There are grammatical errors. But the main giveaway is the button link. The link leads to a phishing site. The phishing site will harvest a users iTunes login credentials.

Scott Reeves
MailShark
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