Avoiding anexpensive shopping blunder, enjoy a 25% discount on Apple iPhone.
Avoiding anexpensive shopping blunder, enjoy a 25% discount on Apple iPhone.
Who wouldn't enjoy receiving a fresh Apple iPhone as a gift during the holiday season? And what about buying one for your dear ones, especially when the iPhone is available with an alluring discount of 25% or higher? The blend of emotional and commercial factors that influences shoppers around this time of year is what scammers are counting on to swindle buyers of their credit card information or bank details. As per a leading security company, iPhone discount frauds are rampant in the marketplace. Here's what you should know about it.
iPhone Scammers Bombard the Internet with Fabricated Discounts
Renowned security experts from McAfee have disclosed to The Sun that an astounding 77,980 websites offering iPhones and other Apple products at discounts ranging from 25% to 90% have been discovered online. Such counterfeit brand imitation attacks are a persistent security issue year-round, but during the holiday season, they take on a heightened sense of urgency. "We anticipate this trend to continue through the holiday season," a McAfee representative told the newspaper.
Counterfeit Brand Imitation Scams Target More Than Just iPhone Shoppers
Cybersecurity experts at Malwarebytes warned of similar brand imitation scams ahead of Black Friday this year, as Anna Brading, a director at Malwarebytes, stated, "Where there's a gift to be bought, there's also a scammer out to make a profit." McAfee also emphasized that, aside from Apple, brands such as Adidas, Yeezy, Louis Vuitton, and Rolex are frequently exploited by cybercriminals looking to deceive consumers.
Although the allure of securing an iPhone at a bargain price, especially with the holiday shopping season winding down, is nearly irresistible, especially considering the economic difficulties many people are experiencing this year, it would be a serious and costly error. The common thread that binds all these fraudulent websites is their desire for one thing: your money. They achieve this by either duping you into paying for an iPhone that doesn't exist or stealing your credit card or banking details to make much larger withdrawals.
Thwarting the 25% Off iPhone Discount Frauds
While McAfee suggests that the "most foolproof" method of determining if a site is the authentic Apple portal or a fraud is to analyze the URL itself, this isn't as straightforward as it may seem. The advice itself is sound in theory, but criminals are finding ways to circumvent such due diligence. Link-hovering attacks, for instance, manipulate the text that appears when you hover your mouse over a link to display the actual URL. As I recently pointed out, "All that's required is some elementary HTML coding, nothing advanced about it, which alters the mouseover text label that appears next to the link being hovered over while the actual URL is displayed elsewhere."
These iPhone discount scams are, at their core, just phishing attempts. Therefore, the usual advice regarding phishing prevention methods still applies. However, I would recommend checking out this insightful article that proposes a novel approach to counteracting such brand imitation scams, whether iPhone-related or not. At the very least, it should provide you with some valuable insights.
- Avoid falling victim to the iPhone scam during the holiday season, even with the tempting 25% off discount on an Apple iPhone offered on some websites.
- McAfee warns about a surge in iPhone 25% off discount frauds, with over 77,980 websites offering fake Apple products and scamming consumers.
- Don't get fooled by the iPhone gift offering at a seemingly unbeatable discount; it might be an apple iPhone shopping scam looking to impersonate the brand and steal your financial information.
- Be wary of the brand impersonation scams targeting iPhone 25% off sale, as cybercriminals exploit popular brands, such as Apple and others like Adidas, Yeezy, Louis Vuitton, and Rolex, to dupe consumers.
- To safeguard yourself from the iPhone scam, use reliable sources for shopping, double-check the URL, and employ phishing prevention methods, like being cautious about clicking links and offering sensitive information online.