During this holiday season, our Consumer Protection Division has seen a recent influx of complaints from Kansans receiving phone calls from scammers posing as Apple support staff. The scammers even use caller-ID spoofing technology to impersonate the company’s real telephone number in order to appear more legitimate. The scam involves a claim that your iCloud account has been compromised, there has been suspicious activity in your account or there has been a data breach at Apple.

Earlier this year, the company issued a warning to iPhone users to not answer calls purporting to be from the company unless you have requested one using the official Apple online support page. If you receive one of these calls, hang up. Do not give your personal information or Apple account credentials to someone over the phone. To further insulate yourself from this type of scam, consider using Apple’s two-factor authentication to protect your account. 

Real companies like Apple will never call you to ask you to wire money, make payments via gift card, send cash payments or provide bank account information in order to provide you a service. Apple says it will never ask you for your Apple ID password, iCloud credentials or verification codes in order to provide you with support. It will never ask for money in the form of an iTunes gift card. 

More information on how to protect yourself from these and other scams is available on the Better Business Bureau’s consumer protection website at www.InYourCornerKansas.org or by calling the consumer protection hotline, 800-432-2310.