Risk Level: Critical
You get a call from a team member at “Apple” trying to persuade you that criminals are using your iCloud account for some seriously illegal activities.
The scam starts when you get a call from “Apple Special Investigations Unit.” The caller will then tell you that your iCloud account has been hacked by a criminal, who is using it to store child sexual abuse images or other highly illegal files. The scammer will then ask for remote access to your device. They’ll promise to take the illegal data off the device or iCloud account, but only if you pay thousands of dollars. Once they have your money, they then also have access to your device to steal data and login details to perform further scams.
There’s no such team as the “Apple Special Investigations Unit.” Many of these scammers ask for payment in gift cards or other untraceable funds. A legitimate company will never do this. Apple won’t be the organization to contact you if your account is involved in illegal activity. Instead, law enforcement agencies are much more likely to be in touch.
Change your Apple ID password. You can do this on any Apple device or at the Apple website. Log in to your iCloud account and review your files. You’ll most likely find there’s nothing illegal or concerning in there. Report any suspected scams or fraud via the relevant USA.gov (https://www.usa.gov/where-report-scams) website.