iCloud storage full - scam?

[OneWorld]

I have just had an email from ....

Cheap iCloud Storage <offers@storage.50G.co.uk>

That says my iCloud storage is full. Well that's strange, because I haven't used it, I don't know how, so surely this is a scam, or phishing attempt? But how do they know I have an Apple ID? I don't use any social media or put myself about on the internet

I have done a search on storage.50G.co.uk etc but nothing found, surely it's a scam?

[Kwackman]

Log in to your apple account from a browser and look at your storage there.

[S.Crow]

Apple sell so many phones that there's a reasonable enough chance that any email address is linked to an Apple account.
So it's worth their while to send emails to any addresses they have with this scam.

[zenguitar]

I've received a few of those, my mail provider identifies them as spam and directs them to my spam folder.

After blocking the senders domain I forward the email to report@phishing.gov.uk and delete it from my system. They are definitely a scam attempt to obtain your bank account details.

Andy

[Luke W]

But how do they know I have an Apple ID? I don't use any social media or put myself about on the internet

They don't, they just know that lots of people do.

Scammers generally try to target as many people as possible with something that they're likely to recognise, hoping that it makes them click on the links. Amazon orders, courier deliveries, iCloud/Google accounts, and so on.

[muzines]

But how do they know I have an Apple ID?

The same way they know you have a Netflix account... ie, they don't - you *might* have, and thus the liklihood is higher you'll think that somehow the email actually refers to you. And if you don't, you'll just write the email off anyway, so there are no consequences.

Send it out to 25 million people, and a lot of people will think "Oh, I *do* have an account!" and think it's legit - despite not being from the only company that has access to your account, and having no personal, specific identifiable information that suggests they know anything about you that's in your account at all.

Rinse and repeat for the other accounts/services you can think of - Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay etc etc, all the banks, and so on...

The fact that you even posted here querying this, rather than immediately seeing it as a phish, shows you that people are taken in by this stuff enough to take them seriously, or think twice - you should immediately think "the only company that knows anything about my iCloud account is Apple. Is this email from Apple, and does it look like anything Apple would send?" and if not - phishing.

Also: "Is this email trying to get me to click on a link?". "Is this email asking me to log in somewhere?" "Is this email alerting me to a problem I should be worried about and thus be motivated to fix?", "Are they referring to generic nameless people - 'Dear Sir', with nothing the specific to me and my account, because they don't know that information?" and so on - all obvious signs of phishing attempts.

Smells like phish, is likely phish.

My dad had a phone call from "Microsoft" the other day while I was there. His "Windows licence" had apparently expired, and despite my dad being very polite, Indian "MS" guy was very insistent that he needed to log in to my dad's computer... He passed the phone to me, and so I thought "If you scammers are going to waste our time trying to steal our money, I'm going to see how much I can waste of *your* time". It was a good ten minutes before the scammer understood we are all Mac people, and haven't used Windows for 25 years, and I had a good amount of fun in that ten minutes...

[ManFromGlass]

Had some good fun with the duct cleaners going to be in my neighbourhood today phone calls. Being somewhat hard of hearing I insist we have chickens not ducks etc etc

[Wonks]

Had some good fun with the duct cleaners going to be in my neighbourhood today phone calls. Being somewhat hard of hearing I insist we have chickens not ducks etc etc

You'll be inundated with chicken cleaner calls tomorrow. You can't win.

[OneWorld]

I deleted it before I looked more into it, I don't use the iCloud anyway. But I almost got caught out because I thought Apple accounts were 'bullet proof' and beyond the reach of do-badders, seems not

[muzines]

I deleted it before I looked more into it, I don't use the iCloud anyway. But I almost got caught out because I thought Apple accounts were 'bullet proof' and beyond the reach of do-badders, seems not

No one has gotten into your Apple account. It's just an email that's lying to you. (And not even very well.)

I could send you an email now that looked like it came from the president of USA. Or saying that your energy bill is overdue and you'll be cut off if you don't pay £XXX via this link within 24 hours. It doesn't mean any of that is true. And nor do I need to get into his email account, or your energy company's account to do it.

[OneWorld]

I deleted it before I looked more into it, I don't use the iCloud anyway. But I almost got caught out because I thought Apple accounts were 'bullet proof' and beyond the reach of do-badders, seems not

No one has gotten into your Apple account. It's just an email that's lying to you. (And not even very well.)

I could send you an email now that looked like it came from the president of USA. Or saying that your energy bill is overdue and you'll be cut off if you don't pay £XXX via this link within 24 hours. It doesn't mean any of that is true. And nor do I need to get into his email account, or your energy company's account to do it.

Go on then, if you must