itunes credit card fraud

happened to me 10April. Stopping the CC and removing info from itunes store. Apple must know of this. It's a mistake for apple to not look into single charges that are $80 and above. That would be a crap load of songs, Apps, or Videos. Should have raised an alarm at Apple. iTunes store is apparently not safe.

. That would be a crap load of songs, Apps, or Videos.

It wouldn't take a "crapload". Four HD movies would do it, so an $80 charge is by no means unusual, so there's nothing about that amount that would justify the trigger of any sort of alarm.

I doubt that with tens of thousands of users every day that anyone is indeed watching purchasing patterns at the iTunes Store, no. I don't know of any store that watches purchasing patterns; that's usually the credit card company's responsibility.

I understand your ire and frustration. I trust that your credit card company will be able to sort out the fraud.

Thanks for the information. This just happended to me 5 hours ago. I got some charges while I was checking my email for Credit(20 USD), Seller: C2Call GmbH. I did contact the company, my bank, and itunes, I'm really dissapointed that this has happened to so many people. I will not use itunes anymore.

Thanks for the information. I will purchase prepaid visa gift cards from Target or Walmart to purchase items online. I was online checking my email messages when I saw the iTunes Store receipt email pop up. I was really surprised. My bank is alreay on the job. I do want to take them to court.

6 charges on my credit card today from C2Call GMBH via iTunes totalling £170.90, none I have authorised. No telephone support for iTunes, no easy to find guidance on how to report fraud to them either. Me thinks their security on CC numbers is not what it should be and their customer service is nowhere near what it should be. Time to report this one to BBC Watchdog me thinks and get it this some national TV coverage then Apple may start taking this issue seriously.

Actually, when this happened to me, my debit card company told me to try to talk to the retailers first. And as I posted earlier in this thread, I was able to handle it with one of the retailers without having to do a chargeback. With iTunes, it doesn't sound like people have been lucky with that. In my case, the iTunes charges were for small amounts and were pending charges that eventually dropped off, so I didn't have to do a chargeback for them. But it's not crazy for people to try to get it worked out with iTunes (just not very effective).

I wonder if there are two issues here. Mine was definitely a stolen credit card number, with iTunes as one of the false charges, on a card I have never used myself with iTunes. The other fraudulent charges were for different online companies. It seems like if someone is stealing/buying stolen credit card numbers, testing them with small charges on iTunes might be something the thieves would do. Other people, though, seem to be seeing incorrect charges on the card they actually use for iTunes, raising the question of some kind of billing error on the part of iTunes. I think it's one thing if iTunes isn't that helpful when someone uses a stolen card number with them, but it's a lot more concerning to me if they are making errors and are then unwilling to help fix them.

@Dave Slater

I HAVE CONTACTED MY BANK & I AM DISPUTING THE CHARGES WITH THEM!!!!! (and for your information they told me to contact Apple and raise it with them to reverse the charges.)

My point is that various reasons I suspect that Apple is not adequately protecting passwords or credit card data adaquately.

I don't like to have my CC info stored on ANY online site! Those forms to save info for faster checkout? Nope, not for me.


Set your itunes store payment information to NONE and only put in a credit card when you're actually going to buy something. After buying it, set the payment info back to NONE.

Same thing happened to me yesterday. GmbH friendcaller first the app was downloaded then several seperate credit purchases for over 100.00. I canceled my credit card and called apple (no help at all) I emailed itunes who said I should cancel my credit card and change my password. nice. They said they can't track where the credit went, but they know I don't have it. How can you sell a hundred dollars worth on calling credit and not know where it went? I also emailed the vendor directly, he said the same thing (can't track it). What a load of crap! How will the scammer use the credit without a way to prove they own it? I've got invoice and order numbers which are apparently of no use to itunes or gmbh. Luckily my cc company stopped the fourth purchase as fraud. Now itunes says I owe them 30+ dollars for the credit, so they locked my account. Real genius!

no need to yell David, as you can see in my 1st post I did file w/my cc and they are disputing the charges. What ****** me off is that itunes allows this to happen. They will not investigate the matter. They will not track the order of something as simple as airtime credit. How hard can it be to find a user of a credit that needs to use a i.d. or number to validate their remaining minutes?

I also found several strange charges on my account today from C2Call GmbH, which seem to stem from an app called FriendCaller. I have never downloaded this app, so I'm not sure where it came from. Either way, it does become a matter of calling your bank first and canceling your card - the phone number for iTunes support that my bank gave me (866-712-7753) only prompts you to email them. Apple is worse than useless when it comes to support. The next thing to do is wait and see if the pending transactions go through and then call the bank's claims department.
Hope it goes well for anyone else dealing with this!

I think I "win" -- $17,000 in iTunes charges on my credit card for the month of April alone. Credit card company refuses to put an iTunes block on my account, and iTunes refuses to give me any information on the charges. Were not ordered using my online ID, but did use my credit card. I deactivated my account in February becuase of previous credit card fraud, but didn't seem to help, obviously.

deactivated my account in February

That means you contacted your credit card company and canceled your card and disputed the charges?

Credit card company refuses to put an iTunes block on my account

Did you cancel your card?

and iTunes refuses to give me any information on the charges.

They should not give you any info. As per your credit card agreement, it is up the credit card company to contact Apple.

I had these bogus In App Purchase charges from "Seller: C2Call GmbH" as well. I canceled my credit card immediately, but now there's a remaining balance on my itunes account.

Itunes customer support is worthless. I exchanged emails with them regarding the charges hoping, at the least, they would say they're looking into how the charges occurred. Instead they sent me a link to their online Privacy Policy, said they take security "very seriously", and then accused me of having a weak password. Very frustrating. I'm never trusting my CC info with Apple again.