Amazon and Apple impersonated in “$149.99 unauthorized charge” scam
Brief
If you’ve spent any time browsing lately, you may have run into a full-screen popup warning you that your Apple ID or Amazon account was just used for a mysterious $149. 99 purchase. It looks urgent. It looks official. And if you look at two examples side by side, it becomes obvious that it’s neither.
Below are two popups pulled from real pages—one dressed up as Apple Support, one as Amazon.
Same con, two costumes
Below, one popup is skinned as Apple Support, the other as Amazon. Swap the logo and color palette and the structure is identical: a warning icon, a claim that a $149. 99 purchase was just made “via Pre-Authorization,” and a phone number to call immediately. That phone number is exactly the same in both.
Fake Apple alert
Fake Amazon alert
That reused phone number is the tell.