I received a renewal/payment notice and, rather than clicking links in an email, as it is difficult to trust anything coming into my email making claims while asking me to follow a link… Instead, I went directly to my.parallels.com, which is the domain I figure I can trust, to verify the subscription.
That account shows zero subscriptions… active, expired, or otherwise. (all with a (0) when I attempt to search)
I then try to link together the various notifications that are firing off because my Apple card flagged the transaction as potentially fraud and declined it. In looking through the emails, I see what appears to be well organized phishing, or just a patchwork of services that are hard to trust. The flagged transaction by Apple as resulted in a number of “Parallels’ titled emails that span a number of domains:
Anyhow, I have spent well over an hour trying to figure out if this payment I has been auto renewing since 2022 is real or if I should thank Apple for finally flagging it as fraud.
I have used Parallels in the past, potentially even purchased version for my kids over the years, so my question isn't only “where is my subscription?”
Is above really the subscription and renewal workflow? Where does Parallels instruct me to go so that I can verify if this chain of messages is actually legit before I follow a link to some payment system that doesn’t appear related to my Parallels’ account?
That account shows zero subscriptions… active, expired, or otherwise. (all with a (0) when I attempt to search)
I then try to link together the various notifications that are firing off because my Apple card flagged the transaction as potentially fraud and declined it. In looking through the emails, I see what appears to be well organized phishing, or just a patchwork of services that are hard to trust. The flagged transaction by Apple as resulted in a number of “Parallels’ titled emails that span a number of domains:
- my.parallels.com - the Parallels account portal I would reasonably treat as the authoritative source
- cleverbridge.com - the third-party billing processor used for the original purchase and annual renewals (if legit, I must have been directed to back in 2022 when attempting to upgrade an older version of parallels)
- parallelsnetwork.com - the domain sending renewal/payment messages and sounding phishing type emails of urgency to go and update payment details that point to another “who are these guys” domain:
- whatcounts.com - the domain used in links from those messages when directing me toward payment-related actions
Anyhow, I have spent well over an hour trying to figure out if this payment I has been auto renewing since 2022 is real or if I should thank Apple for finally flagging it as fraud.
I have used Parallels in the past, potentially even purchased version for my kids over the years, so my question isn't only “where is my subscription?”
Is above really the subscription and renewal workflow? Where does Parallels instruct me to go so that I can verify if this chain of messages is actually legit before I follow a link to some payment system that doesn’t appear related to my Parallels’ account?