- Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation
Recently, one of our staff members received an automated call from someone claiming to be with Apple support. The recording indicates that there has been suspicious activity on your cloud account and requests that you call back immediately using the phone number provided: 1-888-320-6849.
When you call the number, it doesn’t go through saying “You’ve reached a number not currently set-up to receive calls.” This is a robocall scam.
An internet search of the phone number reveals several complaints and stories from consumers. The scam number has been used as both fraudulent Microsoft tech-support and Apple account support and has been used for some time. We made several attempts to call the number, each time getting the message that it cannot receive calls.
In most cases, the number is active and the person who answers is a scammer. They typically ask for your account information, or your credit card information, and sometimes they ask for a remote connection to your computer/device to help fix the problem.
If you receive a similar call, ignore it. Apple won’t call you to tell you about problems with your account. Sometimes you may receive an email if someone attempts to use your account, so hover over the sender’s email address to confirm their identity. If the email is a combination of letters or numbers or from an account seeming to have nothing to do with Apple (or Microsoft), delete it. If you are genuinely concerned about your account’s safety, contact Apple yourself using the phone numbers listed on their official website.
Consumers who receive scam calls should file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
