“It helped that, even though this text came from a clearly bogus iCloud email address, Apple’s own “helpful” iMessage feature was sort of fooled: the auto-filled contact name said “Maybe: Apple Pay.” Maybe!”
Find My and an iCloud lock turned a stolen iPhone into a brick, so the thieves moved on to the owner. The texts went from fake Apple Pay alerts to “recycling merchants” to threats of murder “on Monday.” Apple’s own iMessage labelled the first scam as maybe Apple Pay. The lock held. The weak point was the phone’s maker vouching for the scammer.