The worst thing is if someone steals your credit card information. Opening your statement to see expensive charges you didn't make is stressful, and canceling your card—and dealing with all the attached subscriptions—is a nightmare. So if you get a call about an unauthorized charge on your new iPhone, you'll probably want to look into it. Here's the thing: it's most likely a scam.
I speak from experience: my wife keeps getting calls from unknown numbers, all leaving voicemails about expenses on her iPhone. Voicemail starts with standard waiting music. Suddenly there is a voice saying something like: “This is Amazon. This call is to authorize a payment of $999 for a recent Apple iPhone 16 Pro order to your account. If you do not authorize this payment, please press 'one' to speak with our customer service representative.” Your call may also be about a “payment of $1,099 for a recent Apple iPhone 17 Pro order to your account.”
We are inundated with calls, and other than the payment amount and the specific iPhone model, the rest of the message is identical. As you might expect, such charges are not actually present in our Amazon account or in our credit card history. This is because no one was buying an iPhone on our behalf or using our financial information: it was simply a scam.
If we had answered the call and pressed “one” to speak to a “customer service representative” or called the number back after listening to the voicemail, the following would most likely have happened: The “representative” would have assured us that they would be able to dispute the charge, but of course they would need some information from us first. They might need us to verify our credit card information and ask us to read our numbers out loud. They may need to verify that we actually own the Amazon account in question and ask for our two-factor authentication code to “verify our identity.” In any case, the scammers would be praying for our concerns about being accused of obtaining some confidential information from us, all for their own financial gain. If we had called back and complied, we would almost certainly have given the scammers the money we thought they had helped us get back.
What to do if you receive this voicemail
If you receive a voicemail like this, do not call them back. If you pick up the phone and receive this message, do not press “one”; just hang up. You are definitely being scammed and there is no risk in simply ignoring the caller completely.
What are your thoughts so far?
If you want to verify their claims, don't involve the caller at all. Instead, go to your Amazon account and check your order history. You'll be able to see if any such iPhones have been ordered under your account, and if so, you can cancel the order here. Likewise, check your credit card history: if you don't see a charge for your iPhone, it means it didn't happen. If you see one, contact your credit card company directly using their official contact information.
Scammers rely on pressure tactics that stress you out and make you feel like time is of the essence. This rarely happens. While it may seem like common practice for companies like Amazon to call customers about large expenses, it actually isn't. If you ever receive an unsolicited message from someone claiming to represent a company you belong to, you can always end the conversation and contact them directly. If you contact Amazon's official customer service or your credit card company, they will be able to confirm or deny your claim.
While you can block a number, it may not do much good. Every time we received a call it was from a different number so I'm guessing they don't reuse numbers when they call you back. Instead, you should seriously consider using one of Apple's built-in anti-spam tools. If you are using iOS 26you can choose to make calls to your iPhone screen from unknown numbers and ask for information before sending a call. No matter what version of iOS you have, you can also bulk mute unknown callers so you're never interrupted by a caller who's not in your contacts.
