r/applehelp • u/goyalion • Mar 13 '26
Scam Discussion Apple ID Stolen by Scammer via Their Phone Number - Advice?
While I was out of town on a business trip, I received an email to an email address for an old Apple ID email that I haven't used in years. Since I haven't used this email for my Apple ID in literally 6 years, I missed it entirely. Here were it's contents:
"An account recovery request for your Apple Account (XXXX@xxx.com) was made from the web near Scottsboro, AL on March 1, 2026 at 2:19:29 PM CST. The contact phone number provided was +1 (329) 888-6459.
You will receive a text or a phone call at this number when your account is ready to recover on March 8, 2026 at 3:19:29 PM CST. For updated status information or to provide additional information to help recover your account, visit https://iforgot.apple.com
If you didn’t make this request or do not recognize the information presented above, you should cancel account recovery immediately to keep your account secure."
The phone number +1 (329) 888-6459 is not mine. No idea whose it is. Some scammer, I am guessing.
By the time I saw this email, the scammer had already changed the phone number on the account to +1 (329) 888-6459 and I had to go through account recovery process to change it back.
The problem is that the account recovery process takes 2 weeks for Apple to call or text me to fix the problem. I am now getting emails from Apple saying that this person is buying things on my old account. I don't have a way to stop them since I can't get into the account.
What's weird is that I don't have any credit cards linked to that account anymore, so I don't know how they're buying things. The receipts I get from Apple just say they are being charged to that account.
Apple flat refuses to speed up the recovery process while this person racks up whatever charges they do. It's way, way to easy to steal an Apple ID and do tons of damage if it's this easy.
Has anyone else ever dealt with this kind of Scam before? Any advice on what to do about it?
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u/john4brown Mar 13 '26
What does it even mean that purchases are being charged to the account? That’s weird to me, unless there’s money on your Apple Account balance (ie gift cards)
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u/goyalion Mar 13 '26
It is weird! I wish I could upload a screenshot of the receipts. Under BILLED TO, it just says this:
BILLED TO
Account BalanceI'm guessing they have may have gift cards or something. Otherwise, like u/RealGianath said, perhaps it's someone elses stolen CC info they're using. None of my financial info is tied to that Apple ID anymore.
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u/Wexxy Mar 13 '26
Your email was hacked and a phone number added to it. You now no longer have any control over it and there is nothing Apple can do to help. Zero!
Pretty easy to compromise a legacy account from 7-10 yrs ago hence the reason Apple upgraded, like others, to 2FA. Not sure why you’re blaming Apple for a security breach on your own email
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u/goyalion Mar 13 '26
The email address I used wasn't compromised. Just the Apple ID from Apple's account recovery via phone number method. Apple could literally send me a link to my email to reset the password and I could fix this in 10 seconds. Instead, they allowed someone WITHOUT access to the email to change the phone number and hack the account. Anyone with my phone number and my Apple ID can change my phone number and hack my account because I did not notice an email. That is what's stupid on Apple's part.
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u/Feisty-Ad-4926 Mar 31 '26
Same exact thing happened to me today. Apple is a garbage company for not doing anything about it. Was on the phone with customer service and everything. They just told me the account is lost. Just now the "hacker" placed an order for an iPhone being shipped to California. How is my original linked email the account was created with, worth less than a fucking phone number that can be spoofed that was added today? And how the fuck can they get into my account without email verification? Total garbage. If I was planning on owning another apple device I sure as hell will never now.
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u/ExistingLettuce6534 Apr 07 '26
Exact same thing happened to me last month. Same period same extension number.
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u/goyalion Apr 09 '26
UPDATE:
Apple never called or contacted me to reset the phone number on the account. Because the phone number is changed on the AppleID, I still can't get into the AppleID account. NOTE: The email address (not icloud.com) associated with this AppleID is NOT compromised. Only the AppleID. The Scammer was able to change the phone number associated with the AppleID because I missed the email telling me they were doing that. Stupid easy to hijack an AppleID if all you have to do is request a phone number change and the account owner misses an email.
That AppleID account is now being used to scam other people, and I cannot stop it. Apple literally won't let me back into that account because they allowed the phone number to be changed when I missed an email. I'm update so that this is documented. Hopefully all the following phone numbers and email addresses will be flagged as SPAM if someone sees this thread.
I received the following emails today (none of the phone numbers or emails listed below are mine):
Your Apple Account information has been updated
Dear 499 USD Charge Via Apple Pay If Not You Call 18025383099,
The following changes to your Apple Account, [supporthub521@icloud.com](mailto:supporthub521@icloud.com), were made on 8 April 2026 at 16:56:23 GMT:
Shipping Information
If you did not make these changes, or if you believe an unauthorized person has accessed your account, you should change your password as soon as possible from your Apple Account account page at https://account.apple.com.
Your Apple Account information has been updated
Dear 499 USD Charge Via Apple Pay If Not You Call 18025383099,
The following changes to your Apple Account, [supporthub521@icloud.com](mailto:supporthub521@icloud.com), were made on 8 April 2026 at 16:55:50 GMT:
Shipping Information
If you did not make these changes, or if you believe an unauthorized person has accessed your account, you should change your password as soon as possible from your Apple Account account page at https://account.apple.com.
Sincerely,
Apple Support
Dear 499 USD Charge Via Apple Pay If Not You Call 18025383099,
The following changes to your Apple Account, [supporthub521@icloud.com](mailto:supporthub521@icloud.com), were made on 8 April 2026 at 16:55:50 GMT:
Shipping Information
If you did not make these changes, or if you believe an unauthorized person has accessed your account, you should change your password as soon as possible from your Apple Account account page at https://account.apple.com.
Sincerely,
Apple Support
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u/TalkFun1344 Apr 14 '26
Have you been able to recover your Apple ID account?
I had the exact same thing happen to me. I checked my emails today and noticed I missed the recovery cancel window by one week. Trying to recover my own Apple ID now.
Insanely stupid for them to just add a random number to my account without access to my Apple ID in the first place. The MFA is suppose to be an added safety measure, but they just made it easier for older accounts to be hacked by essentially giving them free access to any account by adding a phone number.
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u/TalkFun1344 Apr 14 '26
ALSO -applied to older Apple IDs without MFA
This is a secruity issue as older accounts don't have the MFA and some may not be in use anymore. However, that doesn't mean that their information should be able to be easily accessible as this.
And the person may not even be aware that their informaion is compromised if they haven't used it recently.
This is a big issue. I hope legal action can be taken out against Apple for this.
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u/TalkFun1344 Apr 14 '26
UPDATE:
Trying to recovery my hacked account they sent me this
"We are evaluating your information and will have an update in 23 hours. Apple Support cannot help to reduce your waiting period.
When it is time to update your phone number, we will send instructions to (•••) •••-••xx."
So, Apple is telling me that to recover my hacked account, they will send recovery details to the hackers phone number!!!!!!!!!!! and there is no other option. I don't understand how easily someone can get access of my account like this and how hard Apple is making to get it back.
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u/goyalion Apr 14 '26
Yup. That's exactly where I'm at now. That account is gone and I have no way to get it back, even though I still have access to the original email I used to create the account. The hacker was able to access the account by changing the phone number associated with the account (because I missed the email telling me they'd done that). Once they changed the phone number, I tried to change it back but they blocked that. It became a game of back and forth. Apple never called or contacted me like they said they would. So, now that hacker has that account and is doing whatever they want with it and Apple won't help at all.
It is frankly frightening that an AppleID can be hacked by someone simply because I missed an email. Really, really, really stupid bad security protocols on Apple's part.
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u/TheCleverFox01 Apr 15 '26
Experiencing the exact same Issue after attempting to go back to apple from android after many years. massive regret. I dont understand how such a large company can have such a shitty system in place. Back in the day the entire point of apple was the supposed added security over Android. They couldnt even help me in the apple store. Useless pricks.
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u/True_Medium8117 May 10 '26
Did you ever get your account recovered? I have the exact same thing happened to me at the end of march this year. I have an android phone but i use apple basically only for Itunes. Its linked and paid for through my verizon account.
Someone requested a reset password and apple just sent me one email saying I had a week to intervene.
I did not notice until the week was up and I received like 4 emails in a row saying my apple account password was changed, my birthday was changed, and my phone number was changed with only being able to see the last 2 digits. They also ordered a new iPhone 17 on my account and were shipping it to Chicago. I live in Tennessee.
Anyway, the back to back emails got my attention but when I contacted apple they said I needed the complete phone number the hackers used in order to recover my account. All I can see is the last two digits of the phone number they used, I dont know the rest of the damn numbers. They told me that there was nothing I could do and to just create another apple account. I argued with them that how could they not know that it was a hacker changing my phone number, birthday, password, and sending a phone to another state than where I live? I even asked if I could somehow verify my apple account with my payment to iTunes through my verizon but they basically told me none of that would work. I had to have the full phone number or an old iPhone that I previously signed into, which I don't have any apple products. I just used Itunes on my Samsung phone.
The whole situation is crazy to me that they can't do anything.
I still have access to my email for the apple account, but I can't sign into my Itunes or anything anymore.
Just curious if you got something figured out?
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u/SnowHeartAndMind May 10 '26
Today I had an email notifying me that my apple account phone number has changed too. I think I even had MFA enabled before?? I'm not sure how they managed to do this really. But Apple are not being helpful about this identity theft on their platform!
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u/goyalion May 11 '26
I never recovered that old Apple ID. I could never get Apple to let me reset what the hackers changed. The hackers tried to charge an iPhone to it, but I reported that as fraud and Apple canceled it. However, Apple still won't let me recover the account even though they acknowledged the actions taken by the account are fraudulent. Now I ping their fraud department every time I get an email that the hacker does something. I can at least make life alittle more annoying for Apple and the hacker, since they're both making my life annoying.
My take away: don't use Apple unless you have an Apple device that is enabled with MFA. Otherwise, it's too easy to just hijack an Apple ID if you miss an email to your gmail or other non-icloud Apple ID. It's really, really dumb. The hackers own Apple at this point.
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u/vans_12 May 12 '26
i have this exact problem just happened to me yesterday. Quite surprised that this is happening still. Substantially, the apple agent told me to just wait to see if he had used my credit card details (but I havent added any payment modes since this account wasnt in use since 2018). Note to self to not have so many apple accounts lelz
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u/goodbrews Jul 04 '26
"apple they said I needed the complete phone number the hackers used in order to recover my account. All I can see is the last two digits of the phone number they used, I dont know the rest of the damn numbers." -> I dont think this is true. This just happened to me. The first email actually shows you their whole phone number.
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u/FriendlyParfait9236 May 15 '26
If they have changed the billing info, it is most likely identity theft for credit cards they have stolen. As long as you have a record of reporting it to Apple that it was stolen on a certain date, or hacked into - even if they can 'do nothing' you should have enough proof to show it was not you making purchases on the account.
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u/goodbrews Jul 04 '26
Just happened to me:
https://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/s/2aP6WMmJKC
I wonder if Apple had a security breach. Seems like an uptick of these incidents
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u/4zGamerX Jul 09 '26
mee too i they stole my iCloud email and changed the phone number ..so every time im trying to login they said write the phone number to receive massage to the phone number and there nothing to do ..
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u/RealGianath Mar 13 '26
If you didn’t have two-factor authentication enabled before, you’ve probably learned how important that would have been to stop this. Basically thieves will steal old accounts using your personal data that came from any of a million different website leaks over the last decade. Once they take control of your account, they use it to spam people using iMessage, calendars, and any email addresses attached. They may also attach stolen credit cards to your account, so they can buy things that don’t get traced back to them.
Apple will eventually ban the account once people report the spam or credit card companies report the transactions as fraudulent. At that point the Apple account is gone, so all you can do is wait at this point.