Unauthorized Charges To My Itunes Account, Lack Luster Customer Service

Yes, I am having the same problem. The Store charged me for songs I did not buy, and although I got through (be email) to real people, they are steadfastly refusing to issue me with a credit. It appears to be company policy not to admit that there could be any fault with the Store and its software. I guess this is what to expect from monopoly corporations.

Has anybody else had this problem?

James

Hi James.

I'm sorry this has happened to you. I do have a few questions tho.

Do you share your computer with anyone else? (Spouse, kids, coworker...)

Have you changed your ID and password yet?

If you have a reasonable claim, maybe you could contact your credit card company and see if it's covered or file a dispute through them.

mwn

Message was edited by: much wiser now

mwn, my spouse does have access to my machine, but she has her own identical MBP and no real interest in mine. Besides the music I was charged for is to neither of our tastes. No kids or anyone else who can get at my computer.

What really ticks me off is that the Store just stonewalls, repeats the same stuff about contacting the financial institution, blah, blah, blah. If this happened at a regular retail store - say they charged me for the jeans they sold to the next guy in line - the store would accept responsibility and fix it right away. But not Apple. They are acting more like Microsoft each day.

I have changed my password. I like the iTunes Store, but hat ebeing ripped off.

Thanks for your response.

James

The same thing just happened to me! I didn't notice it until yesterday when I logged into iTunes store to browse around. Then noticed a bunch of activity on my hard drive. I looked at the iTunes sidebar and noticed that things were downloading. My iPod wasn't even docked and I hadn't purchased anything in over a week.

So I clicked on the download activity and noticed hundreds of songs and apps in the queue!!! None of which were items I had recently browsed, let alone clicked "buy".

I immediately clicked "pause all" and contacted iTunes support via their "chat" system. After a lengthy chat, they agreed to reverse charges but said I would first see the charges, then the refund later. I have yet to see any refund. The person was also able to do something to where I was able to select all of the items that were paused in my download queue and delete them.

I definitely know that someone has hacked into my account, as the rep said the items were determined to be downloaded from an iPhone or iPod Touch. I never have downloaded apps from my iPod Touch and don't own an iPhone, so I know that this was either due to a hacker or a huge bug in the system.

I immediately changed my iTunes password while still in the chat mode with the iTunes customer service rep AND afterwards called my credit card company to cancel the card and get a new number....a huge inconvenience to be sure.

So I went back into the iTunes store account to review the activity and noticed that in total, there were about 6 different charges, totaling $290.95. The date range that these fraudulent charges were made was 9/30 to 10/05/08.

I'm going to have to report the charges as fraud through my credit card company as it doesn't appear Apple is doing anything about this. Worse yet, they probably couldn't credit my card since I had to cancel it and am waiting for a new one to be sent to me.

What a pain.

I have had perfect success with the iTunes store until this past week.

I am also curious how many others were "violated" with this same type of issue.

Message was edited by: janericster

I found $450 worth of charges to iTunes from my bank account. My iTunes account wasn't accessed because my purchase history shows the last purchas as 9-7-08. These charges appeared on my bank account on 10-12-08. I had to cancel my debit card and I am going through the dispute of charges through my bank. I can't get to a person at Apple to dispute the charges.

I will definitely be killing my itunes account. So much for the new iPod I was planning to purchase.

I just got dinged with this problem also, to the tune of $253 over the last 2 days (11/2-11/3). I'm wasn't a huge iTunes purchaser over the past years, but I just recently got a company iPhone. Like the other responses, Apple has catagorically refused to refund the 3 unauthorized purchases ($50, $100, & $103), so I'm left to work though Wells Fargo Dispute process. I have cancelled the Debit Card previously associated with my iTunes account, and changed passwords on both my Apple ID and AOL (used for iTunes login authorization) accounts and temporarily selected "None" in the Credit Card info area of the iTunes setup. I will need to enable the Credit Card info (temporarily) in order to update my iPhone's applications through the App Store, even though those apps are Free apps. It's frustrating that a credit card is needed for the Free apps or their updates, and that Apple will only offer an "I'm sorry to hear that this happened." and "regrettably" offers nothing more than that.

I don't leave my CC info in iTunes. If I make a purcahse, I add it, make a purchase, then remove it.

will need to enable the Credit Card info (temporarily) in order to update my iPhone's applications through the App Store, even though those apps are Free apps. It's frustrating that a credit card is needed for the Free apps or their updates,

It's not needed for free downloads (having downlaoded a bunch of free apps and updates and not having my CC info in iTunes).

And now I was struck with the unauthorized charges! 11/3, I was hit with four charges ($20, $20, $20, $50) to my credit card from APL*ITUNES. Nothing in my Purchase History shows any purchases that would justify this charge. Then, a day later, the $50 charge was returned, again, without my knowledge. The monkey in the support department "could not look up transaction that recent, so please email customer support regarding your issue...I promise that they will get back to you between 12-24 hrs!" Are you kidding me? Joke 1) I have to email them because the transactions were too recent; Joke 2) he promises that someone will get back to me in 12-24 hrs! UNREAL

I too was hit with unauthorized charges on saturday (11/7) was a total of 3 different charges on my debit card ammounting to about $220 looks like they ordered several apps and a $200 gift card. got the same useless info from the apple chat person "im sorry this happened to you" blah blah blah and he said i'd have to dispute the charges with my bank and that I would get my money back. but now I need to wait till the charges actually come off of pending before my bank will even allow me to dispute them. I find this very inconvienient because now I get to choose do I want to eat or not be late on my car payment. I've since changed my password login name and removed my card info from my account. I should probably call my bank and turn off my debit card aswell.

My wife bought one movie for about $3 and then five days later we got popped for two $200 charges. I use my credit card hundreds of times a month and, in the last 20 years of my using credit cards, I've spotted one duplicated charge as the only discrepancy. Imagine thousands upon thousands of charges and vendors and I get only one problem at a mom and pop gas station for $25 in 20 years. But Apple doesn't have it together to prevent $400 worth of fraud? If Apple knew what was good for them, they would nip this in the bud because I will never buy from the iTunes store and I will tell everyone I know to use alternatives--there are plenty. This will cost Apple far more than $400 in the sales they are going to lose with my pitching against them at every opportunity. I am now reconsidering buying my next computer from Apple. I was on the brink of buying an iMac but was waiting for the new updates which I anticipate coming pretty soon.

I too just noticed about $300 of unauthorized purchases from my account. This is happening way too much to too many people to be coincidence. I don't think apple will be too happy if this gets out. No one will use itunes. It doesn't look like anybody is getting a refund. I realize the website says all sales are final but this shouldn't apply to the purchases unbeknownst to the consumer.

<Edited by Moderator>

yea, same thing happened to me. $200 charge out of nowhere from itunes. i chatted with itunes support and they confirmed somebody opened an account with my info. I am now in the dispute process with my bank and Apple. And interestingly enough i found this web site with lots of similar reports: http://getsatisfaction.com/apple/topics/aplitunes_has_taken_money_from_my_account_and_i_never_orderedanything

Of course any type of fraudulent charge is a serious matter and shouldn't be taken lightly, but you people are barking up the wrong tree. Apple is not responsible for any unauthorized to your credit card, and going to them to get a refund is a mistake on your part, simply because you're not well informed of how fraudulent charges are handled with your own bank.

No other business would be held responsible for unauthorized charges to your CC, so why would you think Apple is different. If someone stole your credit card and purchased a $200 meal at a nice restaurant, do you think the restaurant would be responsible? Of course not, and neither is Apple in the case where your account or CC gets hacked by some unknown individual. With that said, rest assured there are procedures in place that can help you to resolve your dispute.

You need to contact your bank and ask them to launch an investigation into the security of your account. As part of the investigation, their fraud department will contact the iTunes Store directly to investigate the claim and resolve this issue. The FTC has a special process that all merchants and banks follow related to fraudulent issues.

Unauthorized Debit Card Transactions:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/consumers/resolving-specific-id-th eft-problems.html#FraudulentElectronicWithdrawals

Unauthorized Credit Card Transactions:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/consumers/resolving-specific-id-th eft-problems.html#CreditCards

Your bank probably even gave you a disclaimer when you first signed up that stated you should contact them, and NOT THE MERCHANT, in the event of an unauthorized charge dispute. Please read the fine print and do your homework before you come here slandering a good, reputable company.

As a final note, it is not required to have a credit card to create an account. You can easily create an iTunes Store or App Store account by following the steps in this article:

Create an iTunes App Store account without a credit card
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2534

And for those of you who might be worried about this type of thing happening to you, do yourself a favor and run virus scans, spyware scans, keylogger scans and every other type of security scan on your computer. These types of things happen because your computer got hacked, which is no fault of Apple. Additionally you can remove the credit card off your account by saving the payment method as "None". It is not required to keep a CC on an account. I personally don't have a CC on my account, as I prefer to use gift cards for this very reason.

I hope this helps! Keep it safe people !

also if you use paypal to pay for purchases through itunes, then your credit card info isn't in their files or on your hard drive where it can get swiped

Yeah,

There are real issues with the accounting system at Apple. They have either been hacked, have a virus or they are just incompetent. You ask for help and only get a run around. It seems you write for support and I think a machine scans the email and looks for keywords, and creates a reply based on the scan. Doesn't seem like there is a human component over there. I have issues with viewing a balance which I can do with OSX 10.3.9 but cannot tell what the credit balance is when I log on with a computer running Leopard. Something really fishy here.

My emac show a significant balance and they write back that it's ten bucks. That itunes wizard is a real you know what.