Unwanted Itunes Emails

[brainiac]

In the past 3 days I've received two separate emails from iTunes which claim to be receipts for something (with a receipt number) I've bought from them. I have never bought anything from either Apple or iTunes or had an account with them, so is this just a case of mistaken identity (my email address is just my full name) or could it be some sort of scam? This has happened before a few times some months ago. Anybody had similar emails?

[Captain2]

A scam - plain and simple. Just delete or better still report as Phising.

[Samuraisan]

I wouldn't open them and just delete them. Sounds like a "fishing" scam to me.

[brainiac]

Thanks for that, Captain, that's what I thought, but it is a bit alarming as you start wondering if they have my card details etc. Will delete without opening, though I did open the first one I received earlier this year and emailed them to say I had never bought anything from them or had any kind of account with them. No reply to that, of course!

[Buenchico]

The emails aren't from iTunes. They're sent out randomly by fraudsters who know that at least some of the addresses they use will be valid and that at least some of the people at the valid addresses will use iTunes.

There are two possible purposes:
(a) to get people to pay money for fake invoices ; or
(b) to get people to open attachments (such as receipts in pdf format) which immediately dump MALWARE onto their computers.

If you've opened any attachment received with such an email, you should immediately carry out a full scan with your anti-virus software and a further one with Malwarebytes:
https://www.malwarebytes.com/antimalware/

[bhg481]

No reply to that, of course". Be patient - you've just told the scammers that your email adress exists, so now they can sell it on to other scammers. NEVER reply to, or "unsubscribe" to unsolicited emails.

[rsvp]

Unfortunately brainiac, by replying to the email you've confirmed the scammers have an active email address.

[brainiac]

Thanks Chris, good to know it's just a randomly-generated thing. Pretty sure I didn't open any attachments when I first got one of these emails, and will now mark as Junk and just delete if they appear again.

[Arrods]

Lots of these going around at the moment. As others have said, report as Phishing.

[fiction-factory]

They won't have your card details. They won't even know your name unless they can guess it from your email address.