MobileMe users targeted by new phishing scam

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

August 13, 2008, 4:27 PM

While the service may have fixed its downtime issues for the most part, it now appears that phishers are attempting to trick subscribers into divulging personal information.

Some subscribers are receiving an e-mail that looks like a legitimate e-mail from Apple. Towards the end, its text reads, "We were unable to process your most recent payment. Did you recently change your bank, phone number or credit card?"

From there, it asks users to click on a link, which brings up a page that does look similar to a page on the Apple Store. Research indicates that the URL is registered to a Romanian resident.

The page seems similar to one used for another scam launched last month that purported to warn of billing problems through Apple's online store.

While many will likely correctly discover this a scam, some may still be fooled. That's because MobileMe has indeed had some legitimate issues with its billing, and some may associate this e-mail with it.

The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team said it was aware of the scam, and urged users to take steps to mitigate risk. They warned against following links in unsolicited messages, using caution when entering personal information, and to refer to US-CERT's guidelines on e-mail and phishing scams for further guidance (PDF available here).