Alert: Apple Store - 100 AU$ credit, Apple Store - BONUS OFFER

I noticed a couple of emails pretending to be from Apple today offering $100 credit for $9. I hope that at this stage people realise these aren’t real offers. In the past I’ve noticed scams targeted at Apple users get a large amount of traffic, most likely because Apple users aren’t used to being targeted. With Apple now having a much larger user base, even compared with just a year ago, Apple users are now being more actively targeted.

You should discard any such offers. The rule of thumb is, if it sounds too good to be true then it probably isn’t, applies very much in this case.

Whilst in this case of these emails are poorly formed and writing the dollar value as 9 $AU, is something we’d never use in Australia, good fakes are very easy to create and can easily trick people. One email contained a htm attachment as a form. I’ve not seen any business use such an approach, but only scammers. The other provided a link to a site and it was obvious from checking the link, it was not an Apple site.

The bottom line is trust your gut instinct. If something doesn’t feel quite right don’t click on it. Delete the email. Most people say to me they thought something didn’t feel right just before they infected their computer, but still went ahead. Their gut instinct could have saved them a couple of hundred dollars in support costs cleaning up their computer and also much grief.

If you are in doubt about an email then consider having it checked out by a computer professional if it really interests you. For example I charge clients in intervals of one tenth of an hour and an email can easily be checked in that time to determine it isn’t legit. You could also contact the company sending the offer (not by responding to the email) and if it is legitimate, they’ll let you know. Of course the answer most times will be it isn’t legitimate.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au