itunes credit card fraud

It's my turn. June 9, 2011 - $978 from 17 charges on my Paypal account. Itunes shows all purchases are from Storm8 LLC.

I use a strong password and have never been hacked. The password leak is through Apple.

Paypal reversed charges. I removed CC from Itunes Store.

Shame on Apple for doing nothing about this and turning a blind eye.

Shame on Storm8 who denies they are part of the problem...

I used to be a BIG Apple fan too...

@jaygee500 I just had the very same thing happen to me, luckily i caught it before it got to bad. Still 120 dollars charged in 3 diferent transactions within minutes. How long did it take paypal to reverse the charges??

A few days ago I tried logging into my iTunes account to buy something in the app store and I was told that it was disabled due to too many wrong password attempts. I find out today my debit card attached to the iTunes account was used fraudulently somewhere at a place called Party City #626. I'm disappointed in the lack of security within Apple and its infrastructure.

It's just happened to me as well. Over $300 worth of purchases on my account. Most were for Haypi Co. Ltd software. 1 was for Storm 8, but that was for a free package. The transactions were for the same software over and over. The interesting part is that less than 4 hours after they were entered, Apple issued refunds for all but one of them. This happened on Thursday, June 16. I didn't catch it til the 18th. Paypal has been responsive and is trying to help. Apple is giving me the same canned response each time I reply. They have yet to help. Plus their website is really set up so that you dispute each charge. With 6 or 7 charges per batch, that makes 40-50 repetitive protests I have to submit and track.

There is still 19.50 for the last transaction that Apple has not refunded. They won't acknowledge the situation and won't reference the refunds they already made. I'm out of the money until it clears banks, but at least my total loss is less than 20 dollars.

The irritating part about this is that I was never an Apple fan. I just got an IPAD and now I'm held hostage for even my free software updates because Apple disabled my account.

My question .... if it was my account getting hacked, then why did Apple know to refund every purchase in so short a time without my requesting it? They refuse to answer that question.

Update. Paypal refunded all charges back to my paypal account but not to my bank. I had to initiate that process and it took another 3 days for a total of 5 days. 17 charges totalling over $1000.

Apple also suspended my account even after I changed my password and removed and payment info.

I read that using $10 itunes cards are the safest way to use apple itunes store since the itunes store so ripe with fraud. I couldnt use the itunes cards because my account was suspended and until they finished their "investigation". I had to send an email to customer support. They finally got back to me today, asked me three questions, then reinstated.

Frustrating...

Wow, good luck with the support from Itunes. Best advice is to cancel your credit card right away and remove the credit card info from your itunes account.

I had the same thing happen to me, somebody stole my credit card info and then used it to charge a series of Itunes downloads to a new itunes account they created (so the purchases did not show on my itunes account info, only on the credit card statement). Itunes said because there was no history of these transactions on "my" account they could do nothing about it. Regrettably, as they have charged my credit card, my name, they have a legal obligation to give me the details about what I was charged for. So far, they have surrendered 0 information and are doing nothing to help or even indicate that they will look into it. At this point regrettably, I am done with Itunes and will have to rethink all future computer and cell purchases as a result of their inability or desire to be of any help.

Yes, this is a known problem. The statement by the Wachovia rep when I was canceling my debit card/credit card was that this is a frequent occurrence and that compromised cards usually end up being used on ITunes. Apple must have some very weak verification if someone who is not me can use my card t open an account and download product. Particularly if they say they can not tell where the product went. Isn't Apple the same company that can tell you where your phone is every minute of every day? So determine who did this and go after them.

Easier to just suggest this as they did in their 50 hours response:

"I have checked very carefully and found that there are no recent purchases made on your account totaling to that amount and the last purchase on your account was made on 06/20/2011. So, it looks like someone else is using your credit card information to make purchases on the store. So, I urge you to contact your card issuer as soon as possible to inquire about canceling the card or account and removing the unauthorized transactions. You should also ask them to launch an investigation into the security of your account. I am extremely sorry, but under the circumstances the iTunes Store cannot reverse the charges for those purchases without chargeback orders from your card issuer."

Read that again: They acknowledge the issue but will not reverse the charges even though someone used their system to make admittedly fraudulent charges to my bank account".

Frankly I can't believe someone actually wrote that to me. Sounds like a joke but that is word for word.

I suggest anyone who goes through this issue, meets with Apple's incredibly absurd email/web only interaction system ( it to 50 hours for the response to my issue), to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

I'm going now to do just that. The ridiculous email response I did receive made me realize how little Apple would do on this.

No more iTunes purchases from this house.

Apple is a complete failure when it comes to customer service. I recently experienced the same thing with someone leaving fraudulent charges using my itunes account, and when I tried calling Apple to get it fixed, they told me "Sorry, you have to send an email, we have no one who can speak to you on a phone". I will never purchase apple products in the future, including my multi-million dollar company which I was looking to refit with about 2 million dollars worth of new hardware, thankfully this experience convinced me to go PC and never look at Apple again! Sorry to say that Apple just lost a multi-million dollar account for poor customer service!

Within the last 24 hours my Itunes account has had £37.49 debited from the balance now leaving only£0.26p,i had an itunes gift card on my account,ive traced it back to an app on the itunes app store it shows that since october 9th at least 9 other people have experienced similar fraudulent purchases on their accounts,and not one person has received any assistance from itunes.Somewho a particular app is purchased in all thses cases it was a Japanese developer the app is completely written in Japanese.On receiving the receipts for the fraudulent purchases i was also sent an email from itunes stating a purchase from a previously unknown device was made on my account,not with instructions to report the fraud but to alter details.

Im afraid My opinion of Apple and the customer support is extremely poor,the only time we receive a high standard of support is when they want to sell us a product,sadly its a different story when theres a problem.

I intend to make sure as many people as i can are aware of this.Maybe if this app had been removed from the app store when problems were first reported further people would have been protected.

I will not buy any more apple products,until they give decent customer support

HI,

Just to chime in here again as my post was one of the earlier ones, also ripped by someone on iTunes, also with no support from Apple "you'll have to take it up with your bank". And my bank told me its a known common occurence (iTunes fraudulent charges)

The answer is so simple and has worked great for me. No more iTunes purchases, period.

I go to a local record store now, as I always used to. I talk to a very nice human, they order anything I want that they don't have in stock, and guess what I leave with? Music on a CD which I can do anything I want with!

It's a technological revolution, I securely pay in person, I have music that is not encoded in anyone's format to control, and I have a great experience.

My personal store is in Towson, Maryland, Record and Tape Traders. I'm sure if you take a minute to look, you will find you have a cool, funky, and personal store in your town as well.

Eat an Apple, don't buy music from one.

Fortunately for me i had an itunes voucher and not a credit card,after seeing how much money so many people have lost i feel less frustrated,but still angry and more so that apple such a big company are not prepared to sort out the problem.Apple obviously dont care about customer satisfaction,maybe its time to ditch all my existing apple products and move elsewhere

Here is a new fraud. I was checking my credit card account online and saw a transaction for $730-something that was made via paypal for purchases on iTunes.

Ok, first I logged into my iTunes account to check transactions. The transaction did not appear there. So looks like my itunes account wasn't hacked. Next, I logged into my paypal account and checked transactions. No itunes transaction of that amount. Ok, so my paypal account isn't hacked either.

Called the bank and had the credit card account closed. Logged into paypal and sent them a complaint.

Interesting thing is that the credit card used for the fraudulent transaction is linked to my paypal account. So the scammers somehow managed to link this credit card, that is linked to *my* paypal account with a different paypal account and use it on iTunes.

That raises two questions:

1. How can paypal allow one credit card to be linked to two paypal accounts? That should be such an easy to setup alert.

2. Why is iTunes such a huge attraction for scammers? What makes them so easy to use as a vehicle for scamming?

i have also ben charged almost 300 $ through fraudulent purchases by a app called "petshop" ,i have reported to apple and my credit card company if not resolved i will take them to court .

there are serious security issues in using apple itunes for purchases ,i just blocked my credit card as safety measure

does anybody face this ,we sholu go to the media with this ,this is very very serious

Goddamnit just discovered today that this is happening to me too. ~$117 on a single day about 2 weeks ago - 3 transactions. Im a cheapskate so i was pretty shocked when i saw this. Called the banks and had my credit card cancelled. Emailed iTunes support but from what I'm reading, doesnt sound like i am going to get much luck there O_o. The purchases do not appear in iTunes account purchase history but appear in my bank account. Single device user (iPhone 4S) and install iTunes on a single workstation (albiet windows 7) Apple should at least acknowledge that there is a [possible] security flaw and investigate it... plus get back to those that have fallen victim to it. Gawwd!

Hi all.

In relation to my situation (as above), I emailed iTunes support iTunesStoreSupport@apple.com and iTunes acknowledged that I DID NOT make the purchases. Below is my correspondence with a consultant:

Me: I have 3 unauthorised purchases in my bank account from the "Apple iTunes Store Sydney" for the ##/## in the total amount of $117.40. These amounts do not appear in iTunes >> Account >> Purchase History. I have one computer (running windows 7) authorised to make purchases and currently have active one device (iPhone 4s). I have since cancelled my credit card as advised by my bank. Please investigate this issue.

iTunes Support: Thank you for writing to iTunes Store Customer Support. My name is #### and I'm glad to help you today.

I understand that you are concerned about the purchases made on your account without your knowledge. I know how eager you must be to get this taken cared of. It is my sincere intention to help you with this.

######, to prevent further purchasing, I have disabled your account "myaccount@XYZ.com" and have disallowed the credit card from being used on the iTunes Store. Please note that you can enable your iTunes Store account in the future simply by replying to this email and asking for your account to be reenabled.

I carefully reviewed your account and I determined that you have another iTunes Store account who uses the same credit card. Account ID is "FakeAccount@XYZ.com".

Etc etc...

Me:

Thank you for the prompt reply.

The other iTunes Store Account ID "FakeAccount@XYZ.com" that you mentioned using the same credit card is NOT an account I own or have authorised. Due to this fact, I am unable to access this particular account history to advise of the order numbers for the specific unauthorised transactions. My bank statement identifies three (3) transactions were made on the ##/## in the amounts of: $XXX

As advised, I have removed my credit card details from my iTunes account (myaccount@XYZ.com) and changed the account password. As mentioned previously in my initial email, I have contacted my credit card provider and cancelled my card from being used. As I do not have access to the fraudulent account ID FakeAccount@XYZ.com, I will be unable

to close that account.

iTunes Support: Thank you for writing back.

I'm sorry to hear there were unauthorized purchases made using your credit card on another iTunes Store account. I know how important it is for you to get this issue resolved and we will work toward fixing this situation for you.

#######, I reviewed further the account "FakeAccount@XYZ.com" and determined that the purchases were on this account.

The decision to issue a refund was made after a careful review of your case. Please note that this refund is an exception to the iTunes Store Terms and Conditions, which state that all sales are final. A refund in the total amount of $118.39 has been issued to your financial institution. Refund processing times vary depending on your financial institution and can normally take from 7 to 10 business days. Please contact your financial institution for details related to processing times.

These emails were communicated within 2 days of each other and recently, my bank account has been credited the $118.39 from iTunes. Whether or not everyone here has the exact same situation, i could not tell you if the result will be the same. At least you know theres a chance. Overall i found them to be responsive to my emails (positive) but obviously theres a security flaw within iTunes that needs to be addressed. (negative).