Apple apologises to Chinese users over recent phishing scam

San Francisco: Apple has apologised to its Chinese customers, addressing the recent phishing scam which led to unauthorised App Store purchases with stolen Apple IDs, a media report said.

"We are deeply apologetic about the inconvenience caused to our customers by these phishing scams," Engadget quoted Apple as saying on Tuesday.

Phishing is the fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, Chinese users who had connected their Apple accounts to mobile payment systems Alipay and WeChat Pay suffered from the scam.

"Scammers use any means they can - fake emails, pop-up ads, text messages, even phone calls - to try to trick you into sharing personal information. Use two-factor authentication (2FA) to protect your Apple ID," Apple Support wrote in a blog-post.

Security is a big issue with Apple in China right now, the Engadget report said.

Earlier in 2018, China introduced a new cyber law that imposed sterner controls over data, making it mandatory that all data related to China clears security reviews and gets stored within the country itself.

The law made Apple move iCloud accounts of Chinese users out of the US and onto servers stored in China.

However, Apple believes that this data leak was not because of any security issue on the iPhone-maker's part, but only a result of phishing.

The iPhone-maker has provided email addresses monitored by the company for users to report any scam or suspicious activities.