Kaspersky: Scammers Exploit iPhone 18 Hype with Fake Stores

At the start of the two sales waves for the new iPhone 18 models, Kaspersky experts have identified fake websites exploiting consumer excitement with fraudulent offers for the new devices. The scam sites, discovered in multiple languages including English, Arabic and Portuguese, are designed to steal users’ money and personal information.

One fake website offers iPhone 18 models with technical specifications and a 25% discount, even encouraging Bitcoin payments. Another site, targeting users in Brazil, advertises iPhone 18 Pro devices in various colors and storage capacities, including options not officially announced by Apple. It also promises flexible payments and refunds to make the offers appear more legitimate.

During the purchase process, users are asked to provide extensive personal information, including their name, phone number, email, city and WhatsApp details, followed by bank card information. This data could later be exploited for social engineering, while victims may also suffer financial losses.

“We have seen scam offers emerge around high-profile device launches for years. Consumer excitement can give cybercriminals an additional advantage and improve their chances of profiting. We strongly advise users to be extremely cautious when choosing where to shop and to make purchases only through official and trusted retailers. Offers that seem too good to be true, as well as product selections that are broader than or differ from those officially announced by the company, should be treated as clear warning signs,” says Olga Altukhova, Senior Web Content Analyst at Kaspersky.

Kaspersky advises users to shop through official retailers, verify website URLs and company names, use dedicated payment methods, enable multi-factor authentication, monitor financial accounts and use reliable security solutions with phishing protection.