Beware a new scam e-mail purporting to be sent by the Apple store

IF you receive an unexpected invoice by e-mail purporting to come from Apple in respect of the cost of a purchase from the Apple store or to pay for a subscription to Netflix then dump it immediately as it is a scam to try to get your bank details.

This writer who does have an account with Apple received an invoice for a Netflix subscription in the sum of £39.56 and was immediately suspicious but also slightly worried that my regular debit card had been hit for that amount.

I first of all clicked on a link which said ‘Report a Problem’ which took me to a website offering a number of different options not just for Netflix but also for Indian products. As my suspicious nature was working overtime, I returned to the e-mail and entered reply which then gave me a response address which was clearly nothing to do with Apple so I marked it junk and dumped it.

Apple are warning people that thousands of these false invoices which are remarkably convincing in their layout have been sent randomly to a selection of e-mail addresses and already some people have been unfortunate enough to ask for a refund and handed over their bank details.

 A statement on the Apple website confirms that the iTunes Store will never ask anyone to provide personal information or sensitive account information (such as passwords or credit card numbers) via email and warn anyone who receives such an e-mail to dump it without opening any attachments.