WA ScamNet has warned consumers over potential iPhone scams after several social media reports of iPhone user's phones being "taken over".
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Mandurah resident Amber Bloomfield posted on social media on Wednesday, asking for help with her phone.
“Just be aware people I was scrolling through Facebook and my phone locked itself and a message came up saying something like "device locked, contact help.support@apple.com regarding the $50 unlocking fee" or something like that,” she said.
“Don't fall for it - I could still unlock my phone but I don't know if they have anything or not - my partner reckons it's been hacked through Pokemon Go but it could be anything??”
WA ScamNet spokesperson Alina Cavanagh said ScamNet had not yet recieved reports of the specific scam.
“We have however received other reports of people’s phones being completely locked, or of internet pop-ups coming up claiming that a device has been locked,” she said.
“Generally the advice is not to pay the money, and to take the device to an approved repairer or the manufacturer, in this case Apple, to have it checked for malicious software, viruses, etcetera.
“If a consumer pays the ransom, it is likely that the scammer will continue asking for more money claiming that the old problem was fixed, but they have discovered a new issue.”
Ms Cavanagh said any email that purports to be from Apple but has a .gmail address should be ignored, as Apple does not use Gmail, which is a Google platform.
More information on potential scams can be found at the WA ScamNet website.
