Billions of iPhone, Android, Gmail and Outlook users warned of a $100M Red Alert error – check your device now

The next time you check your emails or texts, watch out for a convincing scam spreading.

IT security company Trend Micro flagged the scammers in a recent roundup of people to watch.

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The scam includes a fake Apple message with a malicious link asking you to provide personal information.

The message claims: “Your device has been suspended from Apple Pay.

“You must reactivate your wallet to use Tap-n-Pay services.”

This is a false claim and will redirect you to a page asking for your credit card information and personal information such as your home address.

Fake Apple news like this is not new and a similar one reportedly cost Sony Pictures millions of dollars in 2014.

In November of the same year, the hacking group Guardians of Peace targeted Sony executives with phishing emails that appeared to be from Apple.

This helped them steal credentials and subsequently 100 terabytes of data, which they then leaked, according to a report IT governance.

The group is said to be associated with North Korea, and the hackers demanded that Sony’s film The Interview be withdrawn from theaters.

The data the group leaked contained private information about the company’s employees and their families.

It also revealed secrets about Sony Pictures films that had not yet been released at the time.

Jim Lewis, Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Reuters that the hack could cost Sony Pictures $100 million.

The good news is that you can easily avoid a mega error like this one by being careful with suspicious messages and links.

How to avoid smishing

Smishing is essentially the same as phishing, the common email fraud technique that tries to trick you into revealing personal information.

Security Intelligence experts refer to smishing as the “SMS cousin” of phishing.

You can set up spam protection on your phone to try and stop smishing.

On Android there is the function “Activate spam protection”.

Apple has a “Filter Unknown Senders” feature on its iPhone that can flag strange messages.

You should also follow common techniques for detecting phishing.

You should carefully check who wrote the text.

Even if it looks official, you should double-check the email and look for any misspellings or slight anomalies in the sender’s email address.

Never feel pressured to open an attachment and avoid clicking on the phrase “activate content”.

You should also be careful with links in text messages.

If you are sure a text message you have received is a scam, delete it.