itunes credit card fraud

Like a lot of people on here, I'm a loyal Apple customer (phone, computer, iPod) and I couldn't be more disappointed in them. Got a call from Chase Saturday morning, advising me unauthorized purchases had been made on my account via iTunes and Amazon. Unlike others on here, I was fortunate that the amounts spent appear to be low. Problem is, I had about $$$ left on an iTunes gift card. Once they went through that, the excess went on my credit card. Chase has been on top of it so far (and trust me, I'm not a fan of the "big four" banks, so I'm definitely not promoting Chase here, but they have at least been responsive), while iTunes emailed me - since no one is available by phone - that I should change my password, delete my credit card info and contact my bank. No sh*t. I realize the dollar amount in my case is low, but where is the customer service? Someone illegally accessed my account on iTunes and spent my money. iTunes makes plenty of cash off all of us and I'm shocked they won't do more to assist. If not refund my money, maybe split the difference? Or, allow me to actually speak to a live person about it to find out what happened? Like someone said in an earlier post, hopefully everyone who's shared a similar experience will post and push Apple to get their iTunes customer service level to the same as... Chase?!? Yikes...

+unauthorized purchases had been made on my account via iTunes and Amazon.+
So amazon got hacked, too? You can also remove your CC details on Amazon, and just enter them when you're going to make a purchase. They actually didn't have that a year ago on Amazon. I was glad to see they'd enabled that aseveral motnhs ago.


Someone made unauthorized charges to one of my husband's cards. He called the bank - there was no point in calling 1-800-flowers, the gas station, or the 4 other merchants that had these unauthorized charges.
I don't understand this hue and cry against Apple, and thinking they can do something beyond what any other store would do.


People get all paranoid about buying online, but how hard is it for a server in a local restaurant to get your name, credit card number, and CC security code when they take your card away to settle your bill? We're pretty sure we know the restaurant where this happened with my husband's card.

but they won't take responsiblity

Take responsibility for what?
_*Your bank authorized*_ the charges.
It's up to you to dispute the charges with the bank and it's up to the bank to contact Apple.
This is standard procedure for ANY credit card dispute.
-> http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre13.shtm
-> http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre16.shtm
-> http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20020617a.asp

You can also remove your CC details on Amazon, and just enter them when you're going to make a purchase. They actually didn't have that a year ago on Amazon.

It's been like that for a long time. I've had an Amazon account since 1999 and never left a CC in there.

It wouldn't let me take mine out until the original one had expired.

I remove the CC payment option completely, not just the CC info.

Apple has no interest in resolving the continuous fraud in their system They have bilked my account out of over 600 in the last week and when you complain all they do is send you a form letter. I am consulting a lawyer and seeking to file a class action law suit over their handelling of itunes fraud. I'll let you know what we come up with.

This is happened to my account. Someone used my account information and purchase near 150$ items from Itune Store. I Complain Apple Support Team and Make Report Problems for all purchase made, Yet They are not reply to me and bill to my account.

<Edited by Host>

I just got hit over the weekend. My question is, when you set up your account in lets say Singapore, is it that easy to change the settings to make purchases in an iTunes store in another country? To my knowledge I know the US store is a little more secure cause you can purchase iTunes Store Credits instead, correct me if I am wrong.

Anyway some dude in China was happiliy chalking up 7 purchases of $40 of apps each time. Crap I do hope Apple has a good explaination for this for all users who have been hit. Actually I just want to get back my money.

when you set up your account in lets say Singapore, is it that easy to change the settings to make purchases in an iTunes store in another country?

It's not possible; you can only use the iTunes Store of the country you're in.

For those countries in which iTunes prepaid cards are not available, I suggest just removing your credit card information from your iTunes Store account. Then enter it when you want to make a purchase and remove it again immediately afterward. It's awkward and not complete protection, but it does limit the possible damage somewhat. You might also consider one of the "prepaid" credit cards, if banks offer those in Singapore.

Thanks for the reply Dave. Sadly Singapore does not have these type of credit cards. I think I might have given the impression that my credit card was compromised, however it was actually my iTunes Store account being hacked into.

However I really like Apple to explain why they allowed a transaction to go through in the China App Store when my billing address and debit card issuing bank is in Singapore. Dave like you said you can only purchase in the store that you reside in, unless you are able to provide a billing address and use a card that is issued in that country right?

Furthermore I am quite peeved off that when setting up my iTunes Store account, they required me to input my credit card details before they approve it, however I now realised that there is a method where under payment you can choose the option: none. This method is only visible if you are in another store's country and wishes to purchase a free app. However if you were a new user of an iphone/ipod touch, you would follow the new user procedure and the option of not inputting the credit card number is not given. Why the discrapency..

Any inputs from other users??

Apparently I've fallen victim to the iTunes scam too. I have a debit card that I have because I receive payments to it (otherwise I'm no fan of debit cards) and had several pending charges on it today from iTunes as well as a couple of other companies that I did not make. While I was looking at my account online, I watched a couple of the charges go through. Although I have an iTunes account, I have never used this card with iTunes. In fact, I have only used it with a couple of online merchants that are generally considered reputable (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.) So at least in my case, this doesn't represent a compromised iTunes account, but rather a compromised debit card account. The amounts through iTunes were small for me, though unfortunately larger with one of the other companies, so I don't see much point in messing with Apple. I doubt they can do much. Hopefully in the daytime someone with the debit card company can help. At least I was able to get it blocked tonight.

I just discovered 2 purchases from within my iTunes account. They appear to have originated in China as well.

I'm no expert but this does not appear to be a case of "stolen" credit card numbers. (I've checked every transaction on my account and these are the only ones.)

About two weeks ago, I tried to make an app purchase via the app store on my iPhone and suddenly, it said my password was wrong. I went to my laptop, tried logging into my account and it said there was no such username. I went through the whole iforgot/password retrieval and lo and behold, I didn't seem to exist.

I then contacted apple support, they reset my password and gave me a direct link to myinfo.apple.com. When I got in there, I saw my username had been changed (to a shorter version of my original one) and my country of origin had been changed to China.

And yes two charges were made - all were iPhone apps including a bunch of free ones (???).

I too have been a lifelong Apple/Mac user, and am terribly disappointed in their customer service towards this. A rather stunning example is when I e-mailed to inform them that my username & country of origin had been changed -- and that I had to change them back, I got a reply that said, "Great, glad to hear your issue has been resolved."

Again, I repeat, this doesn't seem to be a case of somebody using a swiped credit card number, it appears to me it was done by hacking into Apple's system. I'd like to hear something more from Apple than "call your credit card company".

I posted earlier in this thread as I recently discovered the number of a debit card I have had been stolen and used to make purchased in the iTunes store. This isn't an issue of my iTunes account being compromised, as I've never used this card with iTunes. There were charges from a few different online businesses that I didn't make. I cancelled the card and the bank told me to try to see if the companies where the charges were made would refund me, and if they wouldn't, I'd have to file a dispute. I thought, fat chance of that, but one (an online game company) did it instantly. Thankfully, that was the one that was for the most money. The iTunes charges were small, but not surprisingly, iTunes said there was nothing they could do. Strangely, they suggested I change my iTunes account password, which makes no sense, since this really had nothing to do with my iTunes account. But I was surprised that the game company was so helpful.

i think iTunes could definitely learn a little from that online gaming company. I'm not trying to be an Apple basher here, I love their products, but sadly I think the iTunes store need to keep up with providing better customer service or else they'll be eclipsed once again by giants Microsoft and Google.