Is this an email from Apple or fraud?

Solution 1:

Even without posting the headers or any hyperlinks in the message, it's easy to identify a message like that as a bogus message. Note the poor use of English ("see this alerts") and the creation of the sense of urgency ("permanently disabled if"). There is also almost certainly a bogus hyperlink for iforgot.apple.com in the message which would lead to a website that was designed to scare you into supplying your credentials to the scammer.

Solution 2:

There are several signs to show this is fake:

• Poor grammar

• It doesn’t say your name but it says your email Dear [your email address]

• The sent address. It doesn’t contain Apple.

• iForgot is a site to recover your password not to log-in

• Apple’s Privacy Policy is 2019 Copyright and not 2018

What I would do:

• Log-in to https://appleid.apple.com check the status of your account and change your password

• Not clicking the iForgot link in the email

• Report the email as encouraged by Apple:

If you receive what you believe to be a phishing email that's designed to look like it’s from Apple, please send it to [email protected]

Solution 3:

While others are focusing on the literal question of “Is this email legit?” I will be more direct, clear and universal:

Don’t Panic!

If you don’t trust an email you have received that says something like “your account has been hacked” then do not click any link on the email and just visit the official website of the account to check.

That’s it.

The reality is emails can be faked and phishing emails are getting more sophisticated. So instead of breaking your brain trying to comb through every supposed “sign” of a problem, instead do not ever panic when getting an email like this. Delete it—or at least don’t click on any link in it—and then just visit the website you got that email from and see what happens.

9 times out of 10 you will login without issue. If you still feel nervous, just change your password on the site and even enable two-factor authentication and you should be good to go.

But at the end of the day: