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Apple Support - IMPOSTER

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Apple Support - IMPOSTER Reports & Reviews (7)

• Aug 23, 2023

My mother's computer screen locked and displayed a phone number to call "Apple Support" to unlock. She called the number. "Jennifer" answered the phone and told her she needed to buy a $300 computer support contract for them to unlock the computer. She gave them her credit card number. The screen was unlocked for two days then suffered another ransomware attack.

I received an email on June 16 2022, with the Apple logo and very commonly seen pictures of the iCloud and iPhone 13 images, saying that items I had purchased at an Apple Store costing $848.00 had been sent to an address in San Francisco. Since I had not purchased these items and do not live in San Francisco, I immediately called the Apple Support phone number provided in the email and reached a man (named Daniel, but this could have been a fake name) who said he could help me, asked for the order number on the email I had received, looked that up, and then said I'd likely been the victim of invisible and undetectable malware that would next be draining all the money from all of my bank and financial accounts if I didn't allow him to use an app called "AnyDesk" that he instructed me to download from the Apple app store. This provided him access to my cellphone screen,and he then instructed me to send a total of four money payments by Zelle from two of my bank accounts to two different "technicians" - Jamal Westcott and Diante Long - who would then remove remove the malware and block the withdrawal of all my bank balances from these two institutions. I was very nervous about all of this, but Daniel said I needed to trust him because he was the only one that could help me from losing all my hard earned money, and that I would be refunded all of the money I sent via Zelle after the malware was removed and the accounts were made safe by having blocks put on the account by his technicians to prevent the malware from functioning there. To assuage my discomfort, he sent me a text message allegedly confirming I had been approved for refunds of my Zelle transfers to his technicians when the work had been completed. He also had me call the banks and insist that they approve the requested Zelle payments quickly, and said not to say anything that would make them suspicious that I was paying for malware removal. He also had me merge the calls to the the banks and said I should not let the bankers know that anyone else was on the call - so of course he heard all the questions the bankers asked me, and my answers. At the end of nearly 7 hours of "working with him", and getting the four Zelle payments approved, he said the malware had been removed, and I would be getting my refunds back to my Zelle accounts immediately. He also said he'd call the next morning to confirm all this. I have not received any refunds, and he did not call me back. I called both banks a few hours later when I realized I had been completely "con-ed", and talked with their fraud representatives. They basically advised that I approved the Zelle transfers that the money was gone with no recourse. They also advised that I should change my bank passwords, or close the accounts and open new ones, and they put freezes on future activity on the accounts - which has made paying real bills very difficult for me. Both banks said they would initiate investigations. I asked where Daniel was located, and he said "Cupertino". But the call number he used after the initial contact I made was from Chicago Heights Illinois, and I don't know where the phone numbers he provided for his technicians originated, because I never called them.

I think I recognized the voice of Daniel - as someone who had previously provided me with assistance to unlock a hacker attack on my home computer several years ago.

This is a terrible scam. I spent a lot of time on the phone today with a real Apple Care specialist who helped back up my iPhone, check for possible malware or other problems that the fake Apple Customer service may have created. I do not believe I'm yet finished dealing with this scam and my almost unexcusable participation in it. But the money is gone, many aspects of my life with electronic devices and banking has been damaged, and I've lost a whole lot of time that I needed to be working on other matters, like real work I couldn't possibly do without a safe phone and computer.

Surprising to me is that Apple Care says they can't do anything about stopping scams like this, because they are not directly harmed as I was. I think Apple does need to take a strong role in stopping scammers who use their logo, images of their iCloud and iPhone 13 products, and their corporate name to make people think they're the read Apple when they are not, and are in fact hurting the Apple brand. This is a terrible scam.

I needed help with an Apple product so I looked on search and it came up as Apple Support. He asked me to upload “anydesk.com” then said I had suspicious charges on my bank account so open my bank account. I said NO!!!!! I told him he had no business in my bank account and that had nothing to do with my Apple Watch! I told him I was hanging up and did. I looked up the real Apple # and reported this and they helped me.

- Van Nuys, CA, USA

My mother was contacted on her cell phone multiple times with voice messages stating that there was a security breach and to contact Apple Support. I contacted the number and spoke to a women who identified herself as an Apple Support technician she also had an Indian accent and asked whether we had traveled recently out of the country specifically to Russia or Germany and that there was a security breach from hackers from those countries and that they would like to do a security check to secure our computer and there would be no charge for this service.

I was directed to my computer to install a software to download called Anydesk so that they could get remote access to complete the security process. Once configured onto my computer, the woman transferred me to their supervisor who to complete the process. When I questioned his authenticity he directed me to an email he sent me that had an apple support link and showed me his name, Apple tech ID number and years of service with their company.

I was then instructed to check my bank accounts for any unauthorized charges. When I did this on my phone, he redirected me and said that my phone and other devices are not secure due to the hackers and that this should be done under Apple Security. He sent me emails and showed on my desktop a database that had my name and the foreign countries that had been tracking my identity, which were the hackers. He showed me in the emails he sent me that the foreign hackers had placed a $9,500 limit that they could take from my bank accounts. He was able to access my bank accounts to set up virtual recipients through Zelle transfers to trick the hackers from stealing money out of our bank accounts, and that this money would be returned to the accounts after they reduced the number of hackers tracking me that they could see from the tracking device that they showed me. They were successful in extorting $13,000. During the process they instructed us not to mention hacking to anyone that we talk to and not to do any online banking for security purposes. For every doubt and question I had he had an answer and continued to provide proof of his legitimacy. I then contacted the bank the next morning and filed a dispute claim and that there was nothing to do to stop the Zelle transactions. They put a block on my account and I was advised to change my accounts in the bank. I was told over the phone by bank techs I spoke to that after the fraud investigation is completed the money would most likely not be returned because it isn't technically fraud.

They pretended to be AppleCare. They told my boyfriend that someone in China hacked his phone and his VPN was compromised. They had him download 2 apps do the could access his phone. They proceeded to tell him his Cashapp and BOA app was also comprised. They had him transfer money out of his cash app then returned it. Then they had him transfer all the money out his cashapp until it was empty with promises of it being refunded. Then proceeded to have him do the same in his BOA app. They sent him text messages pretending to be BOA with transaction refunds pending. They also promised him free AirPods. When I stepped in and told him to hold on Apple wouldn’t have you sending money he got smart so I told him to connect me with the manger. The manager than had him try to enter $1000 and hit refund so he could get his money back through Zelle. I also have Zelle so I know that’s not how it works, once I started telling him no he started getting irate do I hung up to call my bank. As soon as I hung up they called right back. Once I contacted his bank they told us the transfers were sent to a phone number. We are waiting on Cashapp to contact us back.

- Watertown, NY, USA

Contacted 8 time in 3 hours by various numbers. They wanted to access my iCloud accounts claiming they were hacked. Phone numbers are ?+1 (415) 866-7365?, ?+1 (415) 861-7508?, ?+1 (415) 868-9918?, ?+1 (415) 869-7085?, ?+1 (415) 863-0863?, ?+1 (415) 864-5649?, ?+1 (415) 868-8857?, ?+1 (415) 869-3928?

- Monterey Park, CA, USA

I googled the phone number of Apple Support to dispute a charge for a purchase I made on an online game that I downloaded for my apple device. I was first talked to by an "Apple Support" representative who told me his name was Patrick and then he assigned me a case number 10001988357. He told me that after reviewing my account that he saw there was some fraudulent activity estimated to be around *** in pornography costs. He told me that he could also get my *** refunded to me by the accidental purchase I made on the gaming app.He then passed my case over to another representative by the name of John Freight who gave me an employee number of 10782. He told me that I would be required to purchase 4 *** dollar Itunes gift card, of which I would be re-imbursed directly to my debit card. I did so. I bought *** dollars worth of Itunes gift cards and then proceeded to read the numbers off to him. As we "neared" the end of the process he told me that it could not be provided because I did give my full name associated with my itunes account. He proceeded to transfer me to another "rep" by the name of Jack Wilson, Employee number: JK00281. To restart the process Jack told me I had to purchase another ***  dollars worth of Google Play Gift cards. I did so still under the impression that he would re-imburse me. Before he we could "finish" the process he told me that I needed to purchase 3 more Itunes **  dollar gift cards. Foolishy, I gave him all the gift card numbers. The total amount of gift cards I purchased was ***. He told me that after I purchased all those gift cards that they could not be deposited into my debit card because the total amount exceeded ***. He told me in order to be re-imbursed, A fed-ex person would have to deliver a cashier's check contingent on me buying another ***  dollars worth of gift cards. At this point I demanded that I be re-imbursed and refused to spend any more money. He reassured me to find a Apple Service Store to confirm what he was telling me was true. I google the name of the store, and when I arrived at the address in Hollywood, there was no such store. Meanwhile, I called my bank who infomed me that there was a 100 percent chance that I was being fraudulently taken advantage of. I feel stupid that I was so gullible, but nevertheless it's a life lesson and I hope this can help someone else.

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