NewsCompaniesFlawsGuides
Get the app

Apple ID scam texts: your account isn’t locked

From Scams, in the HARD wiki · Updated

A text, email or call saying your Apple ID (now called an Apple Account) is locked, your iCloud is full or someone used your Apple Pay, with a link or a number to call, is a scam.

Apple says scammers claim someone broke into your iPhone or iCloud, or made charges with Apple Pay, then offer to help. They want your Apple Account password, a verification code, or payment in Apple gift cards. Apple says it never asks for these to help you.

What it looks like

An example written by HARD, not a real message. Real ones change wording often.

Text from applesupport-id@[an email address]

Apple ID: Your account has been locked for security reasons. A sign-in was detected from an unknown device. Verify your identity within 24 hours: [a link that isn’t apple.com]

Check the one you got

Paste what you were sent. HARD checks it in this browser with the same rules as the Is this legit? check in its apps. Nothing you paste leaves this page.

How to tell it’s fake

“Apple never asks for this information to provide support.”

Apple Support
It asks for your password or a code.
Apple says never to share your Apple Account password or verification codes with anyone, and that it never asks for them to help you.
It links to a sign-in page.
Scam messages link to fake Apple sign-in pages. The real ones are account.apple.com and iforgot.apple.com, typed in yourself.
It wants you to turn off a protection.
Apple says it will never ask you to disable a security feature on your device or account.
A caller says they’re Apple.
Caller ID can show Apple’s name and number. Apple’s advice for an unsolicited “Apple” call is to hang up.
It mentions gift cards.
Apple says never to use Apple Gift Cards to pay other people.

If you clicked, called or paid

Change your Apple Account password now.
On your iPhone, in Settings, then your name, then Sign-In and Security. Or at account.apple.com, typed in yourself.
Check your devices and email.
At account.apple.com, choose Devices and remove any you don’t recognise. In Settings, check the email address on your account is yours.
If you’re locked out.
Use iforgot.apple.com, or Apple Support through the Apple Support app.
Call your bank if you paid or typed in card details.
Use the number on the back of your card, not one from the message. Ask them to block the card, dispute the charge and watch for more. The sooner you call, the better the chance of stopping it.
Report it.
Forward the email to [email protected]; for a text, send a screenshot there. Tap Report Junk under an iMessage. Report the call at ReportFraud.ftc.gov in the US. Outside the US: Report Fraud in the UK (reportfraud.police.uk, which replaced Action Fraud), Scamwatch in Australia, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre in Canada. Forward scam texts to 7726 in the US, UK and Canada.

If it was your parents, read Look after your parents, and if a card number or password has gone, Breaches explains what each kind of leaked data lets criminals do.

The official way to check

Look in Settings, not in a message.
Settings, then your name, shows your account and any real problem with it.
Sign in at account.apple.com yourself.
If there’s nothing wrong there, the message was fake.

Someone on the phone asking for money right now? Guides has the two-step answer. More scams by name are on Is this a scam?, and new ones reach the Situation Room.

Questions

Does Apple text you that your Apple ID is locked?

Apple doesn’t ask for your password or verification codes to provide support, and a text with a link to “unlock” your account is a scam. Check in Settings, then your name, or at account.apple.com.

How do I report an Apple scam text?

Take a screenshot and email it to [email protected], then tap Report Junk under the message if it came by iMessage.

Someone called from Apple about my iCloud. Is it real?

Treat it as a scam and hang up. Apple says not to trust caller ID, and never to give your password, codes or gift cards to someone who calls you.

Sources

Sources checked on 7 Nov 2026.

  1. Apple Support: Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes, phishing messages and phony support calls, published 15 June 2026: what Apple never asks for; hang up on unsolicited calls; [email protected]; Report Junk; FTC for US calls.
  2. Apple Support: If you think your Apple Account has been compromised, published 5 December 2025: check the account email, remove unknown devices, iforgot.apple.com.
  3. FTC: Are you really out of cloud storage or is that message a scam?, 2 July 2025: fake storage-full texts and emails in Apple’s and others’ names.
  4. FBI IC3: “Phantom Hacker” scams target senior citizens (I-091223-PSA), 29 September 2023: a fake tech support contact, then a fake bank, then a fake government agency, each moving your money to a “safe” account.