itunes credit card fraud

Please don't give advice unless you tried it yourself.

The only way to contact is via email i.e. fill the form online. No person at Apple support could solve the fraudulent charge problem when I called. My young daughter's account got some purchases yesterday, they were for a gift certificate and a game downloaded on an iPhone. She's never had any iPhone so to speak. I think Apple goofed big time on how to handle purchases using Paypal. Normally, when I bought something at other online merchant and paid with Paypal, a new browser window would open to log in Paypal to select to approve then it brought me back to the merchant's website to finalize the purchase. When purchasing from iTunes using Paypal, the payment was preapproved so no Paypal log in was required. If it did, the fraudulent charges could never go through. Apple compromised security. I think Apple could not careless because they got the money. Knowing many people hot hit with the $20 gift certificate purchases, I think our Apple accounts are compromised, perhaps hackers got a bunch of account IDs and passwords and they're programatically making purchases. I already asked Paypal to block any purchases. How Apple handles the problem, who would know? By the way, my daughter has just told that she got an email from Apple support saying that they're investigating and they stopped another pending fraudulent charge to her account.

I received an email from Apple/itunes telling me that were happy to tell me that my reported problem has been resoloved and I can begin using my account again. HOWEVER, they did not telll me how it was resolved, nor have I received any refunds. ITUNES STINKS FOR SECURITY.

I would never trust them again to use their agreement.

I do have a good answer for the future though. I spoke with a very helpful woman last night at Paypal. She agreed that using a debit or credit card could be worse if this would happen again, and probably it will. Here is what she told me to do and it makes sense.

When you want to make a purchase from Itunes, allow the agreement to run through Paypal. Then after the purchase either go to Paypal or call them and CANCEL the agreement with itunes. To do it on your account page with Paypal it took me about 2 minutes. Well worth the time. You can also see if you have agreements like this with anyone else. This is why itunes does not make you log into Paypal seperately like other merchants do.

If you do that each time you use itunes you will secure again and Paypal will guarentee your money back.

She said you could call them anytime to do this, or to be shown how to do it yourself. It's easy.

iipad22me wrote:

Please don't give advice unless you tried it yourself.

The only way to contact is via email i.e. fill the form online. No person at Apple support could solve the fraudulent charge problem when I called.

apple now has an account security department where you can speak with someone to fix fraud charges

so if your looking for someone to talk to then call and ask for someone in account security for FRAUD

Where can this number be found?

iipad22me wrote:

Please don't give advice unless you tried it yourself.

Okay, thanks!

The only way to contact is via email i.e. fill the form online.

Do you think I suggested somewhere that people call? I didn't.

You need to contact iTunes support throught their web page.

I don't know how Apple gift certificate works because only my daughter bought music on iTunes once in a long time. I myself still bought music CD for use on non-Apple player after converting to mp3. Anyway, beside the hacked account holders, I think the problem will spread to some other people, too. For curiosity, I browsed eBay for Apple gift card. There are some newly listed $20 itunes cards for sale. Now if one of the cards is a fraud, the buyer does not know until he pays, gets it to use for some purchase. How will he/she complain? Who will take care of that problem? The purchased card on eBay may not be used until months from today. Who will go back months from today to track who did what?

iipad22me wrote:

I don't know how Apple gift certificate works because only my daughter bought music on iTunes once in a long time. I myself still bought music CD for use on non-Apple player after converting to mp3. Anyway, think the problem will spread to some other people, too. For curiosity, I browsed eBay for Apple gift card. There are some newly listed $20 itunes cards for sale. Now if one of the cards is a fraud, the buyer does not know until he pays, gets it to use for some purchase. How will he/she complain? Who will take care of that problem? Who will go back months from today to track who did what?

It's up to either eBay or the seller to correct the issue.

I highly suggest you don't purchase any gift cards off eBay.

it's the 1-800-275-2273 number just ask for someone in account security

Many people do not understand that these charges have nothing to do with APPLE nor ITunes. It is bogus and It is a fake account charging your card that most likely got your Cc info from a infected computer or a link that you clicked and it led you to a fake website that appears to be something legit. You or a family member entered your Cc info to update credit cards or to place an order. There you have it, a theif has your CC because he sent you to a fake website that appears to be a legit account.

I disagree. I NEVER sign on to sites from emails and my computer was never infected. I also didn't have my iTunes registered with my cc...it was with PayPal. The thiefs never had my cc number or even my PayPal password. They simply found out my apple login and password and ordered that way. This is the case for most people. It seems that somewhere there is a breech in apple/iTunes security.

I've just had £129 stolen from my bank account by someone.

Having to cancel my card is a real pain but had to be done. I should have the money back in my account in around 3 days all being well.

The bank statement showed it to be; Apple Itunes store Usd Luxembourg US 99.99 USD.

My details have never been compromised nor has my computer ever been infected, so it has to have come from within Apple somehow.

I would certainly like to get my hands on the thief that's for sure.

Well that's a quick result. My Bank have refunded me already. That's me happy but annoyed at my info' being compromised in the first place.

Good luck to the rest of you.

Hey there,

I found this article that may have some useful information about your account security:

iTunes Store: Best practices for protecting the security of your account

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4156

Hope it helps!

I got exactly the same charge that I don't recognize on my credit card account.

The category of the charge that my card company showed is MUSIC,MUSICAL INSTRUMENT,PIANO,SHEET MUS.

I reported it to the card company. I also changed my password for iTunes Store, but in my iTunes account there is no record for the $99.99 purchase. So changing password might not be solve the issue.

Hi eelgrass,

If you haven't already contacted iTunes, you should do that so they can disable your account and ban your credit card to prevent further unauthorized charges. You can get your account re-enabled whenever you want, just let them know when you would want it re-enabled.

Next, contact your credit card company again and ask them to issue a chargeback for the unauthorized purchase, once that is done the iTunes Store will be able to reverse the charge for the unauthorized purchase. Once you get the unauthorized purchase issue sorted out, and want your account re-enabled the iTunes Store will manually reset your account password for you as well.

Hope this helps!