Restored a machine to Monterey, and right after got a disturbingly appropriate spam email

[EugW]

This is spam, but what concerns me is I got it (with the right name and email as spam sometimes has) right after I completed a Monterey restore from Time Machine. I'm sure Apple isn't compromised here, but is my email compromised, or was it just a bizarre coincidence?

Please tell me this is just coincidence...

P.S. The reason I did the Monterey restore is because I unplugged the machine and removed my NVMe SSD from my Mac mini, but when I reassembled it, I got an error saying the machine was not shut down correctly. OK, my bad. However, I kept getting the error on subsequent reboots. macOS worked perfectly fine, but this error persisted. I tried various options including clearing the NVRAM but no joy. So after futzing around with this for a while I just decided to go for the nuclear option, and reinstalled macOS from a Time Machine backup. That finally solved the problem.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Random chance.

 

[EugW]

Random chance.

Glad you agree. Their timing was perfect this time though.

 

[stinkhorn9]

The grammar isn’t good enough for it to be a genuine Apple communication.

(Spammers/phishers, take note: Learn to write well!)

 

[EastHillWill]

I signed in to Amazon on a new device last year and seconds later got a phishing email from 'Amazon' to verify a bunch of my info. I'm pretty good about these things but started to go through it before finally realizing it was a scam. We get so much spam that sometimes these jerks get lucky with incredible timing!

 

[NoBoMac]

The grammar isn’t good enough for it to be a genuine Apple communication.

(Spammers/phishers, take note: Learn to write well!)

Yup.

Grammar and general look of the "Login Apple" button is another dead giveaway.

Weird mix of fonts.

 

[EugW]

Yup.

Grammar and general look of the "Login Apple" button is another dead giveaway.

Weird mix of fonts.

Yeah I understand it’s spam but what threw me for a loop was it’s perfect timing. My concern was if my email was compromised vs. just simple spam.

 

[stinkhorn9]

Yeah I understand it’s spam but what threw me for a loop was it’s perfect timing. My concern was if my email was compromised vs. just simple spam.

That weird timing thing has happened with me too: courier ‘notifications’ that arrive exactly when I’d expect them to…

 

[MBAir2010]

wow, if one is not paying attention this spam could be harmful
what do you do?
perhaps check another device like an iPhone or ipad.
or maybe log into iCloud.com?

the
"If we dont receive the information" is the bad grammar

im glad you mini and account is intact, EugW

 

[TiggrToo]

Two weeks ago I finally convinced my Wife to throw away 5 years worth of aged Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons on the basis that they'd stopped issuing them.

Two days later we got our first new coupon in over a year in the mail...

Life's full of coincidences.

 

[EugW]

The grammar isn’t good enough for it to be a genuine Apple communication.

(Spammers/phishers, take note: Learn to write well!)

I read somewhere once that the poor grammar/spelling weeds out the vigilant and preys on the less well educated, or those with English as a second language. In a way, it was a way for them to drill down to find the easier targets.

I don’t know how true that is but it’s an interesting perspective. Then again, lots of more well educated people fall for such scams too.