Black Friday Plagued by Email Scam Offering Free iTunes Credit

While Apple has today slashed some of its price to celebrate annual shopping-fest Black Friday, buyers should be careful, as fraudsters are sending malicious emails promising free iTunes credit.

The email, which comes with an attached ZIP file that can access your computer and steal passwords and other sensitive information, claims to be from iTunes and offers credit to use in the store.

German blog Eleven Security raised the alarm on Friday and claims that the day was picked by spammers because, being Black Friday, Apple is offering discounts across a wide range of its products, but this does not include the free iTunes credit offers by scammers.

The email tells victims that they have been given a $50 (£32) iTunes voucher and the attached file contains a code to enter into the iTunes Store. Apple is not currently giving away free vouchers and anyone who receives the email should not open it, and instead delete it immediately.

Mac users are not thought to be affected by the attached file - known as Mal/BredoZp-B - and PC users who think they have fallen victim should run their anti-spyware application as soon as possible.

PCthreat.com told the BBC that the software opens up a backdoor in Windows and may capture pass words and other information; the code may also slow down the computer and files may disappear.

Apple is not known to offer freebies, so hopefully most users who receive this bogus email will know not to open the attached file. The IBTimes strongly recommends our readers not to open any email claiming to be from Apple and offering anything for free.