Scores of MobileMe users fall for phishing scam

As if buggy MobileMe e-mail and spotty performance wasn't bad enough, now there's word of scamsters targeting beleaguered MobileMe users—and apparently, more than a few took the bait.

According to Ars Technica, anywhere from 100 to 200 MobileMe subscribers fell for the recent phishing scam, which lured users into coughing up their credit card numbers.

Ars Technica has a snapshot of the phishing e-mail, which comes stamped with Apple and MobileMe logos, a soothing "Welcome" notice, and a warning at the bottom that reads: "We were unable to process your most recent payment. Did you recently change your bank, phone number or credit card?"

A link leads to an official-looking page where users are instructed to "update" their billing information; from there, credit card numbers, addresses, and such are sent into the waiting hands of the scammers.

Investigators believe that between 100 and 200 users with Mac.com e-mail address got caught up in the phishing scam, Ars Technica reports.

Phishing scams like this one are becoming more and more common; witness the Xbox Live phishing attacks from earlier this month.

So, what's the best way to protect yourself? Beware official-looking e-mail messages asking you to "re-send" or "verify" billing or login information. If in doubt, err on the side of caution; contact customer service reps directly and verify whether the suspicious e-mail came from them. And whatever you do, never plug your credit card numbers or account information into a site with an iffy URL (for example, no "apple.com" in the address field), no matter how polished the page itself looks.

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Hundreds of MobileMe customers caught in phishing net [Ars Technica]