If it looks like a phishing email, acts like a phishing email and asks you to click a link to update your banking details, then yes, it’s probably a phishing email.
Except for when it’s not.
It appears a large number of Apple users have been left confused over the last 24 hours after receiving a decidedly suspicious email informing them their banking details on iTunes Connect are invalid and they must be updated.
Now, an unexpected email that appears to come from a well-known reputable company telling someone their banking details are all wrong is straight out of the phishing scammer’s playbook.
That is classic phishing.
But hold on.
Unlike your typical phishing email, this email doesn’t provide a link to click on to update those banking details (instead if offers a link to the Apple Help section.)
And that link does indeed go straight to the official Apple Help section, not some dodgy, spoof website.
And the emails are addressing recipients by their correct name (not “Dear Customer” which we often see with generic mass-mailed phishing scams.)
So what’s going on here then?
If a phishing email doesn’t offer up a spoof link, or ask you to download an attachment, or call up a “support phone number” or at least reply to the email, how exactly can recipients be scammed?
Sponsored Content. Continued below...
Well, it appears that these aren’t phishing emails after all. Apple apparently has been mass mailing large swathes of their customer base this suspicious looking email as a mistake. Many of those receiving the emails are not even using the iTunes Connect platform (iTunes Connect is a backend app that allows musicians and producers to manage and distribute their content.)
Trust us – 99 out of 100 of these “your bank details are wrong” type emails will be scams. However this weird email appears to be the exception. Not a scam, but a mistake.
It can safely be ignored.
