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July 07, 2008

This has happened to me a few times in the past, but it's no less creepy when it happens again.

I received an email from Apple today supplying me with instructions on how to reset my Apple ID password. This is the kind of message you get from a account suppliers when you click the "Forgot password?" button or link on login pages.

Now, before you think it might have been a phishing trick, I checked the message's headers and closely examined the URL supplied in the message. The body of the message addressed me by the name I use with my Apple ID account. This really came from Apple, no question about it.

It means that someone had entered my login address into an Apple login page and clicked that button. Did someone try to get into my account by testing some passwords? Quite possibly. An Apple account is a valuable target because it's the gateway to buying iTunes and Apple Store stuff. Many of the screenshots I've posted in this blog clearly reveal me as being a Mac guy, so it would be logical that I'd have such an account. As I've said before, if you have something of value, one or more crooks will try to take it from you.

Just to be sure, I manually logged into my account and found everything to be in order. If crooks believe they can find clues to my passwords in the verbiage of my web sites, they're sadly mistaken. Or, from my point of view, gladly mistaken.