iPhone Security News Update: Robbers Go High-Tech; Use Phishing Scam On Owner of Stolen Device
The bad guys' schemes advance with technology's development. Recently, iPhone robbers reportedly tried to escalate their ways of phishing the owner of a stolen iPhone in Brazil.
Phishing is a technological method where hackers and robbers attempt to obtain private and sensitive information such as email addresses, passwords, personal identification numbers, banking details and more from a person.
The common way to execute phishing is by tricking victims into opening a website where they will be asked to log in. However, the victim does not realize that every detail he enters into that fake website is recorded and can be used in various ways of cyber stealing or scamming.
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Last week, Krebs on Security reported about the experience of a man from Brazil named Edu Rabin. Three muggers had previously robbed Rabin's wife and had obtained her iPhone 5s.
Rabin decided to use the Find My iPhone app to pinpoint the phone's location. After finding out the device was still active and in a nearby town, he then decided to send a message to his wife's iPhone 5s so the bad guys could learn that he just wanted to buy it back.
In his own words, Rabin told Krebs on Security: "I'd sent a message with my phone number saying, 'Dear mister robber, since you can't really use the phone, I'm preparing to rebuy it from you. All my best!' This happened on Saturday. On Sunday, I'd checked again the search app and the phone was still offline and at same place."
But a day after he texted the robbers, he received several messages about the lost phone. The message tried to pose as something sent by Apple Brazil. As per Rabin's story, it seems he was being tricked into opening a uniform resource locator link included in the text message to supposedly start the process of retrieving the iPhone 5s.
When Rabin opened the link, he was redirected to a website that looked just like the Apple website for Brazil. Luckily, he knew enough to realize that it was a phishing site so he did not fall for the trick.
However, just a couple of days after, he received a phone call that was trying to pose as automated. He said, "It came from a strange number and a voice sounding like Siri or the [Google] Waze voice, informing me that my iPhone had been found and to look for my SMS for more info."
Rabin shared his experience to get the word out, knowing that many people might fall for this trick.
