A fake payment alert is making the rounds online, borrowing the branding of two of the biggest names in e-commerce to push a $149.99 charge that never happened. The popup claims a purchase went through “via Pre-Authorization” and demands an immediate call to a support line.
Malwarebytes documented the con dressed up as both Apple Support and Amazon. The two versions reuse the same warning icon, the same dollar amount, and the same phone number, and scam lookups tie that line to complaints about several unrelated companies, something a genuine support number would never show.
Dialing it connects to a live fraudster. The script then pushes toward remote access to the victim’s device, a fake identity verification that hands over real account or payment details, or a fee settled with gift cards or wire transfers.
“Pre-Authorization” is real banking terminology for holds, which is exactly why the con uses it, and the $149.99 figure is high enough to alarm while low enough to resemble a plausible subscription charge. Red warning triangles and a full-screen modal borrow the visual language of genuine security alerts. Neither Apple nor Amazon notifies customers about account activity through an unexpected popup, and no real company asks users to call a hotline to stop a charge.
Anyone who sees one should force-close the tab, navigate directly to the company’s site, and check the account there. Popups arriving via malicious ads, compromised pages, or redirects are injected, not real.
