Bogus discount card offers purportedly coming from Apple and offering to recipients to buy a AU$100 worth in store credit for the small sum of AU$9 have recently been targeting Australian Apple users:


Unfortunately, it is nothing but a clever phishing attempt - the attached file is a form which the recipients are urged to fill out with information such as their names, address, date of birth, mother's maiden name, driver's license, and their credit card information (including the security code).

Once the information is submitted, it is sent directly to a server controlled by the crooks behind this scheme, and will eventually be used by them or by others to steal the users' identity and pilfer money from their bank accounts.

"Just because an email is nicely formatted and attractively presented with a friendly corporate logo and a too-good-to-be-true offer doesn't mean that it should be trusted," Graham Cluley points out.

Whatever the offer is, remember that Apple - or any other legitimate company - would never ask you to share all this information via an attached form such as the aforementioned one.