Someone stole my debit card number and chareged $870 worth of itunes. I can not get any help from Apple or Itunes. My bank is doing what it can, but why can't Apple help? Any suggestions?
No, I don't work for Apple! I've also worked retail. And yes, the merchant presses charges for bad checks. If a credit card is approved and it later turns out to be stolen, the credit card company - not the merchant - has to go after the thieves.
Apple won't help unless they're legally required to, or would find it in their best interest, and no they do not care about you. That's the only way I would have it, because that is business. Anything else would shake the foundations of our existence.
Apple won't help unless they're legally required to,
Actually, Apple (as any company would do) won't help unless you *legally prove* you were ripped off and you do that by disputing the charges with your credit card company and/or the police.
You agreed to do that as your legal remedy in your credit card agreement so why not do what you agreed to do?
And your analogies are inapplicable to on-line purchases since there's no way to check signatures, get a driver's license number, etc. The iTunes Store collects the same information as any online merchant - credit card number, security number, billing address (which usually has to match
exactly that contained on the card account) and requests an authorization from the credit card company for any purchase, and if the card company provides such an authorization, any fraud or other problem legally becomes the problem of the credit card company. The iTunes Store, or any merchant, thereafter is not responsible for any fraudulent purchase and cannot take any action unless and until the entity legally responsible, i.e the card issuer, or a legitimate law enforcement agency, requests such action.
Sorry, but as has been said several times now, your recourse is through your bank/debit card issuer. Apple can do nothing for you.
I can see reading this thread that some of the posters are clearly victims of credit card fraud - they have ended up with purchases also made from other companies in addition to iTunes. The only recourse is to contact the credit card company. Someone also suggested Apple do not monitor account activity. Perhaps the only thing in my favour for my situation is that Apple indeed do seem to monitor account activity.
My iTunes purchasing is random - about 4-5 times a year maybe and only for about $1-10. I made one of my random purchases on the 5/29/2010 for $1.29. However, I later recieved by email 3 receipts from iTunes for about 10 downloads of music and apps for about $48-$50 each and all for the same date with my 1 legitimate purchase listed first. Upon trying to use the "report a problem" link, it would seem Apple was smart enough to shut down my account for security reasons. Since I recieved the receipts, this also indicates to me an iTunes account breach. No other unauthorized transactions have appeared on my credit card.
Certainly I already hear some of you repeating your "CONTACT YOUR CREDIT CARD COMPANY" mantra, and I certainly have, however I too have worked in retail and the banking industry and often the CC company will recommend trying to work it out with the merchant first. It's in the merchant's best interests to do so. Not only is it better for customer service, if the CC company deem the transactions fraud, not only is a chargeback made against the purchase, the merchant is also charged an additional $30 per chargeback. In my case, Apple will be out of pocket $90 for 3 seperate transactions. Clearlky profits don't matter to Apple these days.
It saddens me to think Apple won't bother to look into my case (or anyone else's). My download history and subsequent recent over-activity triggering an account shut down clearly show something wrong. I've checked my mac for viruses in case someone was able to send/install some code that allowed them to hack my account if at anytime I used a password. All I would like is Apple to show a little concern for some of their customers, assess their system for improved account security or show they are still human somehow behind the electronic user interface.
Woke up this morning to find 45 purchases of FriendCaller 3 Pro Call Minutes from C2Call of $29.99 each as well as an initial purchase of $1.99 for a friendPaper app. The total damage? $1,351.54
Considering I've only made a couple small purchases in the last four years, I would have expected the transactions to be questioned before funds ran out causing them to halt.
The purchases were first deducted from a stored gift card with about a $30 balance, the rest came out of a checking account then overdraft protection via a stored check card. In fact, a purchase was made after all funds were depleted and iTunes shows a $29.99 balance due they want me to pay.
I've disputed the charges through my bank but Apple says they hold no liability for the gift card balance and the remaining $29.99 is being sent to 'escalations'.
It's a bummer that iTunes requires you store a method of payment in order to provide album artwork but provides only 'moderate protection' and 'provides no guarantee or holds any liability that your account won't be hacked' (taken from the iTunes terms of agreement).
I'm curious if someone hacked my iPhone as it prompts for an iTunes password at random times, even when not using the App store. I thought maybe Apple had made a change so that your password is stored so you can one-click purchase without much thought but according to a rep I spoke with, it should only ask for your password when you make a purchase. I synced my phone to iTunes for the first time last night and then the account was hacked. Seems too coincidental.
While I don't hold Apple responsible for the charges, I'll take it up with my bank, I would have appreciated an easier method of contact to report the fraud and a little more of a sympathetic tone. Having to contact an unrelated department and having them IM the iTunes folks was ridiculous and made an unpleasant experience even worse.
It's a bummer that iTunes requires you store a method of payment in order to provide album artwork
It's not required to store a method of payment.
Once you create an account with a CC, you can immediately remove all payment info.
I do not leave my CC info in iTunes. If I want to make a purchase, I add it, make the purchase then immediately remove it.
Oh, nice. The way iTunes fixed the negative $29.99 balance in my account? 13 hours after the initial fraud and 10 hours after my report to Apple and my bank, they charged the $29.99 to my account again. I'm not sure how this is possible since the card was closed but the negative iTunes balance I had is gone and $29.99 of a deposit I made into my bank is too. Now I have to go back to the bank tomorrow morning and add that to my affidavit.
It seems as though there are many pro apple users here or people are just plain ignorant to the situation. As with any online merchant, it is there responsibility to keep all customers financial information private and protected so that no theft occurs. They all have there own method of doing this via passwords, secret questions etc. You are correct that it is not there responsibility to refund your money directly but, and I say a big but, it is there responsibility to investigate any reports from customers about there accounts being broken into. It is apples responsibility to keep information protected and if someone is finding ways to get to that information apple must find out how and prevent it from happening.
I just got off a chat with Itunes for fraudulent purchases. The representative was helpful. But the reality is kind of scary. She said that I had charges for In-App purchases ( close to $300). The app is called FriendCaller 3 Pro. She said I downloaded the App yesterday from my phone. The scary thing is, I never downloaded this app, and I don’t see it anywhere on my phone? Has anyone else ran into this problem? It seems like a serious issue that needs to be looked at promptly by apple
edit... Apple said they couldn’t cancel the purchases and I would have to dispute the charges with my CC company
Thank g-d for fire calls.
If hubby's fire pager had not woken me up in the middle of the night, I would still be ignorant of the fact that my bank account was being drained through the iTunes store. Of course I cannot get a live person either at Apple or at my bank, but at least I reported my debit card as stolen so that I HOPE charges made since yesterday get stopped. I will be at the door of my branch when they open to back this report up, as well as to see if the legitimate purchases I made yesterday before the fraud can get paid.
I will listen to what the bank tells me to do, but regardless, I intend to file a fraud report with the FBI through their IC3 Internet Complaint site.
What amazes me is that I do not own an iPad or iPhone which seems to be what all these apps were for, nor do I speak/read or operate programs in any oriental language, yet some of the charges are for iPad/iPhone and oriental! I will be fascinated to see how Apple tries to weasel their way out of that, but I am sure that the megolith will do just that.
I've just had my banks fraud department on telling me of some fraudulant registration and someone trying to buy muisc and apps, my bank don't want to know because I am a customer of itune's & itunes make it impossible to contact anyone to sort it out. the bank have told me it's a sercurity issue with itunes...
Help anyone
