It Looked Credible

Phishing is a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent (e.g., spoofed, fake, or otherwise deceptive) message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information to the attacker or to deploy malicious software on the victim's infrastructure like ransomware. Phishing attacks have become increasingly sophisticated and often transparently mirror the site being targeted, allowing the attacker to observe everything while the victim is navigating the site, and transverse any additional security boundaries with the victim. As of 2020, phishing is by far the most common attack performed by cybercriminals, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Centre recording over twice as many incidents of phishing than any other type of computer crime. (Wikipedia, emphasis mine)

I have emphasized increasingly sophisticated (above) for good reason, for the text I received on the weekend was certainly that.

I have overwritten the personal data, above

It looked genuine, for we had just made a purchase from Apple, and it would be delivered by UPS. In addition to Apple and UPS, it contained Sue's name, the correct postal code, and was texted right to my phone.

Understandably, people get fooled by phishing messages like this. In this case, with all of the correct information, it looked pretty genuine, but no matter how credible the message looked, I had to think that Apple would not direct me to a mysterious text/phone number. I went to the Apple site just to verify that I was right to be suspicious, and, of course, I found that all was in order and that UPS required no additional fee. 

Never call or text the number or what seems to be a genuine link, but always head to the actual site on your own, using public and trustworthy links.

We also get phished via texts purporting to be from Revenue Canada — no, the government will not ask for Amazon cards for payment — as well as our cellular provider. In the case of our cellular company, the text also looks quite credible. The recent attempt stated that we had a rebate coming, and in light of some fairly recent activity, it did seem somewhat plausible. Once again, I refrained from replying to a mysterious number but checked with my actual account just to make doubly sure.

It's easy to fall prey. This happened to a blogger friend, and withdrawals were being made from his bank account before he realized what was happening. It all got straightened out but necessitated the  headache of changing accounts and credit cards etc.

Scary stuff. Be very aware, and use two-factor identification wherever possible.

And by the way, the package from Apple via UPS arrived yesterday, just as they declared it would. I hasten to add that there was no additional shipping charge.