SEATTLE — A phone scam targeting people with Apple iCloud accounts is sweeping the 206 area code.
The scammers are making harassing phone calls up to six times per day.
“It said: ‘Hi I’m Molly from Apple support and there is a problem the security of your cloud storage account,’” said Jack Herndon, who was repeatedly called Wednesday.
Herndon knew it was a scam right away because he doesn’t have an iCloud account.
However, he knows many people with iPhones do, so he posted about the scam online.
He told people not to give away any personal information, like the crooks were requesting.
Dozens of people, primarily across North Seattle, replied to the post saying they got the repeated call as well.
Some said they got similar sounding emails.
Sheila Cain got called four times last week.
“It upsets me because I think of older people or maybe people who are not tech savvy will worry about this, and actually return that phone call to give out information that they should not,” Cain said.
The calls seem to originate from several different local numbers within the western United States.
However, the call back number is the same.
The automated message also prompts people to dial #2 to make the calls stop.
This is not recommended because it confirms that you are paying attention and the scammers may only intensify their efforts.
Cox Media Group
