CLEVELAND (WJW) – Two new email phishing scams are rising to the surface for Facebook and Apple product users.
According to Fox News reports, evidence confirms that scammers are trying to get a hold of personal and private information.
On Facebook, the latest phishing scam is targeting direct messaging inboxes.
First, users receive and email that says they have been put in “Facebook jail” or their account has been suspended or disabled. The email says that if you don’t act now, your account will be permanently deleted in 24 hours, according to Fox News.
That email will also have a link. If that link is clicked on, it will likely look like Facebook’s homepage asking you to log in.
That page will ask for a login email, phone number, name and other details related to your Facebook account. The page will ask you to confirm the password when you hit submit. When that’s done, scammers will have all the information they need to hack into your account, according to Fox News.
The Apple ID scam is a similar scam that uses a phishing email claiming that your Apple ID was locked because of suspicious activity or multiple sign-in attempts.
The email will prompt users to verify their accounts by clicking a link. This link takes you to a QR code generation website and will ask you to scan the code.
Once that code is scanned, you will be taken to another website that will ask you to fill out personal information such as your home and email address, bank account numbers and phone number, according to Fox News.
To avoid falling for one of these scams, there are a few steps you can take.
First, do not click the links coming from any suspicious emails. You should only be logging into your Facebook and Apple accounts if you went to those applications or websites directly.
You can also use an email program like StartMail which offers several extra layers of privacy protection and can help catch phishing links as they come in.
Also, install backup protection like TotalAV antivirus software as a precaution against scammers.
For more on StartMail, click here. For more on TotalAV, click here.