New Phishing Campaign on Apple devices that's really good

Robert, I know you mean well, but it’s a bit ironic in this case that you’re inviting people to click on a link to an unknown website if they want to know more about how this particular phishing scam actually works. People clicking on links is how a lot of phishing scams start.

You’re by no means the first one to share an article in this way on this forum. When I read the responses to such topics, I’m always surprised and worried how many people are willing to click on links that are shared like this.

That is what I immediately thought - no way I am clicking on that link that looks really unfamiliar. Could you tell us the website so we could google and find the article ourselves ?

Agree, I wasn’t going to click on a random link either!
I searched the terms: gone almost phishing Apple support
The article popped up top of list.
Main takeaway seems to be that Apple Support will never call you first so don’t fall for that.

OP, thank you for posting this — phishing is getting ever more sophisticated.

This looks like a targeted attack on a prominent IT founder, not a general random phishing scam.
"Alexander" has an Australian accent, if AI, you would think they would choose one of the many American accents available, or maybe an Indian call center voice.
It may also have been some sort of payback. Watching some of the scambaiting videos, the scambaiters use some pretty sophisticated techniques to trick the scammers

The link posted by Robert is to Matt Mullenweg blog site, who is one of the founders of and creator of Wordpress.
Just google his name and the website Robert posted comes up. It then has the YouTube video embedded on the blog.

Hi Robert

For personal reasons, I am very interested in online scammers and attacks especially when it comes to travel.

Like others, I would not click on the link that you posted

You write about being a victim of an attack but I do not understand how it happened.

Did it have something to do with the link that you posted?

Phil, Robert (the OP) was not a victim himself. He just shared an article he'd read about the scam from someone else who almost fell for it, and how they advise to avoid it. The article + related articles are easy to find yourself with just a google of the words "gone, almost, phishing, Apple support."

I was not the victim, the person at the link was.

Any link you don't know is a "random link". Stop using the internet if you don't click on links. You decide if how you got the link was "suspicious" or not. But really, any unknown link is slightly suspicious. But not in the "click on link => takes over my computer" sense. Though there are rare ones like that. The main danger in unknown links is setting you up for scams. Don't do anything at the link but look and most of the danger is gone.

This one is a very good look at some of the sophisticated tools/methods they have to scam you. And like any good Con, it's also a set of steps that gradually let the knowledgeable person at the web site further and further into the scam.

[shrug]
Look or don't look.

The article + related articles are easy to find yourself with just a google of the words "gone, almost, phishing, Apple support."

Or you can just click on the link like I did. Robert has posted here long enough, and I know he's very tech savvy, so I have no fears about any link that he posts. I did run my cursor over it first just to make sure that the link matched the text. 😊

I would suggest reading the article and watching the accompanying video. If someone that tech-savvy can almost fall victim to a phishing scheme, what would happen to the rest of us?

Mardee, this is one time I disagree with you. I saw this post last night and, like Kim, I said no way am I clicking on that.

Even long time posters can inadvertently post a link that can lead to trouble. RobertH could have added some clarity as to the "He" that was referenced rather than just the unrecognizable link.

"RobertH could have added some clarity as to the "He" that was referenced rather than just the unrecognizable link."

And why should you believe me? As I said, clicking on links is fine if you don't do anything at the site.

And all of the less than handful of dangerous links I've heard of in my life (I didn't verify them) can be stopped by a simple technique on Windows machines. You're on your own on Android phones. I treat those as burners and don't do anything sensitive (like banking) on them.

Interesting responses. I’m one that clicked and read because I “trusted Robert!” I’m glad I did because we are an “Apple” family and it was very scary to read the extent of the scammers.

And I was heartened to read Mardee’s response this morning because she is someone I trust!
(I hope no one ever hijacks her devices)! She always has great recommendations for travel essentials! She hasn’t led me astray…..yet!

No one should click on anything that makes them feel uncomfortable. That said, clicking on a link to a webpage is generally quite safe. What will get you into trouble is things like filling in forms or downloading files. Also, most browsers these days will flag up if a connection is not private and prevent you from proceeding. It’s important to know where the potential dangers are but this really isn’t one of them. I hope this can be reassuring.

Thanks for posting this. I haven’t yet clicked the link but as an Apple family it’s certainly something we’ll be following upon. I haven’t seen alerts about this particular one and I try to keep up with potential scams .

RobertH has been posting for a long time and was very helpful years ago when I set up Google Voice. I felt comfortable clicking on the link he posted.
I’m very skeptical of links in posts, emails and texts. And am not polite to unwanted phishing phone calls.

Also, when I said it's generally safe to just "look" at a dodgy website, I repeat, do not click on anything! Definitely not ads at the site. Definitely not the little pop-ups, even if they say this will close the webpage. A common trick is to hide other links underneath the one you think you're clicking on. When you're done looking, close the page by closing the Tab in your Browser.

Patty, if you try to keep up with the Apple scams, have you heard about the recent DarkSword exploit? There are multiple reports about it but this is Google's recent one:

https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/darksword-ios-exploit-chain

Right now it only works on Apple IOS 18.4 through 18.7

[snip]
DarkSword supports iOS versions 18.4 through 18.7 and utilizes six different vulnerabilities to deploy final-stage payloads...

GTIG reported the vulnerabilities used in DarkSword to Apple in late 2025, and all vulnerabilities were patched with the release of iOS 26.3 (although most were patched prior).

Lot of good cautionary info in this thread.

1. With a lot of due respect (hey I invented a phrase!), the nicest people can accidently send a bad link. In this case extremely not likely, but if it was my elderly uncle...

2. I'd be very cautious in searching for things involving money or payment. What happens is, bad people use SEO (Search Engine Optimization), to convince G-gle that they are a popular answer to certain questions. That makes their scam site show up higher on the list of findings. In addition, many of the G-gle listings are simply paid for by a company to be listed high up. Unbiased search engines like DuckDuckGo or Startpage don't take money to put a company up higher, but they still; could be fooled by a bad actor's SEO. And they won't sell your search history to vendors who pester you with pop-up ads (looking at you, G*-0gle).

3. So whaddya do? Use a safer browser like Brave, DuckDuckGo, Epic, or even Firefox. They do a lot of checking and have safeguards to lessen the liklihood of bad things. I use Firefox with a very popular add-on called uBlock Origin which prevents a site from doing a lot of things unless I specifically allow them. So I NEVER see pop-up ads (Honest!!)

4. Use bookmarks in your browser so you don't have to search for "buy a ticket on American Airlines", and then click on a bogus copy site. That seems to happen a lot these days.

5. As mentioned, hover your cursor over the link and see if the actual link is the same as the text or not. If the actual link is 50-100 characters long, or contains domains of suspicious countries, that's a red flag.

Be safe out there!

Good tips.

"I'd be very cautious in searching for things involving money or payment."

I'd add "Tech/Customer Support" to those. And, as you said, trying to google phone numbers is getting worse and worse.

thanks to everyone for the clarification.