There were 200,000 attempts per day between January 2012 to May 2013 to steal Apple IDs and financial credentials, according to Kaspersky Lab’s cloud-based Kaspersky Security Network.
This was an increase from the average 1,000 detections per day in 2011, indicating the increase in phishing campaigns by cyber criminals, according to the antivirus creator.
A peak of the phishing attempts was witnessed after iTunes stores launched in India, Turkey, Russia and South Africa, among others, with 900,000 attempts in one day – a common occurrence each time Apple has a large event.
According to Kaspersky the main phishing methods included emails posing as Apple support asking users to verify their accounts by clicking on a link provided.
Criminals also used phishing emails allowing them to steal customer credit information in the disguise of Apple requesting a verification and update of customers’ credit card credentials.
Kaspersky Lab is now advising all Apple users to manually type in addresses when providing information such as their credit card information, avoid using links, follow the two part authentication process for Apple IDs and to look at the address bar to verify whether the website above is the real one.
