A new phishing scam is sweeping across smartphones and catching thousands of people off guard. Criminals are sending fake ‘Cloud Storage Full‘ or ‘photo deletion’ alerts that claim your images and videos are about to disappear unless you upgrade your storage. The warning looks urgent and real. It even mimics major cloud services. But the moment you click the link, you enter a trap.
Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy Report Get my best tech tips, urgent security alerts and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you’ll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide — free when you join my CYBERGUY.COM newsletter
Trend Micro researchers recently uncovered this fast-growing phishing campaign after seeing a massive jump in activity. The company reports a 531% month-over-month spike from September to October, which shows how quickly the scheme is spreading.
PROTECT YOUR DATA BEFORE HOLIDAY SHOPPING SCAMS STRIKE
Scammers are sending personalized SMS and iMessage alerts that include your name and a believable count of photos or videos. Once you tap the link, you land on a convincing fake website that appears to be a cloud storage dashboard. From there, you are urged to pay a tiny $1.99 upgrade fee to prevent deletion. Instead of protecting anything, you hand over your credit card, PayPal login or other personal information.
Trend Micro provided several screenshots and internal samples that reveal how polished the scam has become. The fake sites use progress bars, countdown timers and warnings that your files will be lost. They even simulate a cloud storage layout to match the look of popular platforms.
Jon Clay, VP of threat intelligence at Trend Micro, shared an important warning to CyberGuy: