itunes credit card fraud

This one's rich. I had a credit card associated with my iTunes account. When checking my debit card transactions (my debit card has never and will never be associated with my iTunes account), I noticed a fraudulent charge for $47.62. Now how does that happen? Then before I could get it taken care of two more fraudulent charges, for the same amount of $47.62 each, were "processing" against my debit card. Did the usual, contacted my bank, closed that debit card number, have to wait for transactions to post to finish processing before I can contact my bank again to request a refund. Later I received a notice that an app on my iphone has an update to install. Tried to install it. Now my apple id has been disabled. Tried to follow the instructions on the website and got nowhere -- and of course I can't talk to a human at Apple about it. Logged into iTunes and went to the billing section. It said I needed to verify my credit card information. So I re-entered it and it said it can't be used anymore, that I have to enter another credit card (I guess to Apple is doesn't matter that I don't have another credit card). So I selected the NONE option, which after this experience is fine with me. This is the most insane, infuriating situation I've experienced in a long time (where's my blood pressure cuff?). I have to sit here and twiddle my thumbs until Apple gets around to responding to my e-mail. Once this is taken care of and I'm back in business, rest asured I will never purchase from iTunes again. This is my first smartphone, iphone, and dealings with Apple. Is this what people have been putting up with? Why? How does it stay in business with service like this? What is it that everyone is so enamored with? More people need to get angry enough about it to stop using their hardware/software products so maybe they'll change their "i" tune.

I had no itunes account, my debit card was NOT associated with anything and I was not hacked. I own a computer store so... yeah... know a bit about security. Thankfully my bank's fraud department caught on right away so our business account was only compromised $150 or so which they will return as soon as the transactions are all processed.

Having an online merchant account for our business I know that it must be monitored and we add the extra security of collecting the csv, which can not be stored on the database and therefore must be entered each time a transaction is made by a customer. Does apple not include this extra security measure to make the purchasing process easier putting the rest of us at risk? As long as they make their money right? Even if someone got your card number they should not be able to make a purchase without the csv (which isn't even readable on my card btw). This is obviously a problem for many people and apple oblviously could care less, again.. as long as they're getting their money.

They dumb down their components so you become dependable on them instead of learning anything new and they make the parts so proprietary that they are difficult to fix. I think we all know the issues with itunes.. the song is NEVER "yours" if you can only use it on their products. Even their iphone screens are 10x's harder to repair than the droids... Yet people keep buying them. Now they're even using intel processors in their "macs"... which basically makes them pc. Half the machine for twice the money...and god for bid you need a repair. So why the allure? It's a fad.

We dont buy their products, we rarely fix their products at our store and now some *** uses my card to make purchases because they dont protect their customers. To see all of these posts, it's obviously a huge problem... They dont get my business....and this is just one of the many reasons why.

After having been through this BS with Apple, the usual non-responsiveness, 50+ hours before they got back to me (because of course, you can't reach an actual person at the company perpetrating these problems) canceling my debit card and all the ensuing hassles...blah , blah .blah.

I am here to tell all of you how to stop this problem permanently and effectively, and not be prisoner to Apple's proprietary BS.

Ready?

NEVER buy from Itunes. Let's try that one again, and breathe this time, I know it causes anxiety in some of you.

NEVER buy from ITunes.

It really works. I have not had any more fraudulent charges, have not had to go through the hassle of cancelling another card, I have just as much music purchasing ability. I go to a local store and support THEM instead of the A monster. And when I'm too impatient to wait until I get to the local store, I can grab MP3/4's whatever, from Amazon. And here is the beauty of cutting Apple's heavy hand out of my musical life, I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT WITH THE MUSIC! Now that's resolutionary?

As an earlier poster about my fraud experience, I really enjoy reading the poor souls' posts who say the solution (and Apple even tells you to do this as a remedy), is to buy gift cards and them redeem them.

WAKE UP. How about just buy the music from a store in the first place. You would have to be a complete and total fool to go through these hoops to try and spend your money with a company that could absolutley care less about the hassle their poor system has caused you.

fld wrote:

I am here to tell all of you how to stop this problem permanently and effectively, and not be prisoner to Apple's proprietary BS.

Ready?

NEVER buy from Itunes. Let's try that one again, and breathe this time, I know it causes anxiety in some of you.

NEVER buy from ITunes.

Really? That will permanently stop the problem? No one has ever/will ever have any similar issues again with other merchants or credit cards?

And here is the beauty of cutting Apple's heavy hand out of my musical life, I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT WITH THE MUSIC!

What can't you do with music purchased from the iTunes store that you can do with music purchased from Amazon?

And legally, you CANNOT DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH THE MUSIC! You are purchasing a license to do only certain actions such as listen to them.

You cannot redistribute or sell them, use them commercially, etc.

i totally agree, a ridiculous stratagy in my opinion

it's not going to do anything, you have just as much risk with other merchants and other companies the only reason you see this happen more often in iTunes is because iTunes is the most used and visited music store

"I'm not gonna rob someone in front of a thrift store if i know there is a bigger and better store with more items in it and higher paying customer's."

just thought i would throw that analogy out there, i hope you like it haha

I am also a victim of ITunes Fraud!

I went to my bank to take some money out and I noticed £124 had gone missing. I contacted the bank and and they told me a to wait a until the payment had cleared so they could see what it was.

It showed up that on 22^nd (came out on 23^rd) a payment to just “Apple ITunes” for £124 had been made.

I check my ITunes account and all my last purchases have been free one. I contacted ITunes UK and they said unless I had, had an email invoice stating they were taking £124 from my card, it would have been done on another iTunes account using my card details. They also said all purchases made on ITunes, free or paid show up in the purchase history straight away, of course there was nothing for £124. My bank will be refunding it and will be investigating it.

Idea:

Out of interest could an ad in a free apps contain a hacking virus? As I remember prior to this I accidently clicked on an in app ad?

Hi Eufeion,

I suppose it is possible that when you clicked on a link in an Ad that it contained a virus, but I don't think it is likely. First and foremost, I would recommend never clicking on any links that you are not sure of. Next, I think I would contact the developer of the App that may have contained the virus and see what they have to say about it...

You should also check out these articles:

Identifying legitimate emails from the iTunes Store

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2075

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

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

Since some idiot stole your credit card information, the iTunes Store will refund the unauthorized purchases for you once your credit card company issues a chargeback.

Anyway, hope you get this resolved without too much hassle, good luck!

just FYI for anyone at this thread for suspect charges... there's another very extensive thread for this issue...https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2665383

Same happend to me my bank told me to fill out a police report so I did next week my money was back in my account.

Same happend to me my bank told me to fill out a police report so I did next week my money was back in my account.

I must add i got my money back with no help from apple what so ever! I find it absolutely crazy how long this discussion has been going on (from 2010) and apple has yet to fix this problem!

I found two unauthorized ITUNES STORE charges on my debit card made with 24 hours of each other three days ago. Itunes was the only online account associated with this debit card. I checked my itunes account which stated no purchases past 90 days. Attempting to contact APPLE has been the most challenge. I believe they spend more of their profits on developing strategies to avoid customer contact than monitoring their fraudulent activity. After spending hours and finally getting a human, I was told a second itunes account was opened using my name, debit card # and physical address. Immedietely after this account was opened, the associated e-mail was changed to an invalid e-mail. My questions are why would they allow an account with an invalid e-mail address and then allow that account to make purchases, and why if they e-mail a notice to me when I update my legimitate account did they not send a notification a second account was opened with same info. Obviously no fraud monitoring here. Not one soul knows my secure password and I only use home computer with secure wifi. Obviously it is Apple itunes breech here, no other explanation. Based on this security issue and the sheer lack of customer support I will never purchase from itunes nor purchace another apple product again. They claim since it was obviously a fraudulent account they will refund in 5-7 business days. Not holding my breath. I can and will live without APPLE.

I have had the most unpleasant experience with 13 purchases made on my credit card. And Apple have not been helpful at all. Some Steve guy has been replying to my emails and to sum up what he's said, Apple can't do anything to help. I'm based in South Africa and the amount taken off is quite a bit. I am not an Apple fan and now I know why I was never actually interested in their products. This product was a gift. I will never buy any Apple ever. And to top it up, in South Africa there's no Apple Support, we can only contact the US via email.

Yaya1020 wrote:

And to top it up, in South Africa there's no Apple Support, we can only contact the US via email.

???

You contact the iTunes Store thru Express Lane here -> https://expresslane.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.do

then make sure you select South Africa.

Hi Chris CA. I tried that but South Africa is not listed and the alternative if your country is not listed is to contact the US.

Yaya1020 wrote:

Hi Chris CA. I tried that but South Africa is not listed

???