itunes credit card fraud

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

Message was edited by: jtmazz

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

As per your credit card agreement, you need to file a dispute with your bank. It is their responsibility and they say so in the CC agreement.
See this -> FTC - Facts for Consumers - Fair Credit Billing
Then I would cancel the card and get a different bank.

You raise an interesting point about iPhones getting hacked. My iPhone was acting really buggy for 2-3 weeks. It asked for my iTunes password all the time. Even when I would just wake it up to use it, it would ask for the iTunes password. I thought that was really odd. It also seemed to be operating slower and the touch screen not as responsive. The battery seemed to be drainig a lot faster than usual. Finally, it stopped charging--I would plug it in and it would say it was charging but it wasn't. So I googled that problem and found how to fix it by doing some sort of reset that involves connecting it to iTunes. Anyway, that fixed all of the problems and the phone stopped asking for password constantly.

Fast forward a couple weeks to June 2, I check my checking account online and find 6 charges from iTunes ranging in amounts of $40-$50 each. I also have 2 pending iTunes charges of around $45 each. I immediately called my bank and then changed my iTunes password. I have filed disputes for the charges. I have one outstanding charge at iTunes which must have occurred in the 5 minutes between when my check card was frozen and my iTunes password was changed. Thankfully it is only $5.38. Apple has said that I have to pay that and then they will refund the money to me. That seems a lot harder than simply removing the charge, but whatever.

This was a case of my iTunes account getting hacked because I went to my email account and found all 8 receipts for the purchases. I also found that 5 computers had been authorized on my account. I deauthorized all computers for now.

It does seem that Apple has a serious security issue given the volume of strikingly similar complaints that I have found online. My password was very strong. One thing I have learned from this episode is not to use my check card for my iTunes account. Luckily, I did not have anything bounce but others have not been so fortunate.

Thankfully it is only $5.38. Apple has said that I have to pay that and then they will refund the money to me. That seems a lot harder than simply removing the charge, but whatever.

Yes, that is what they seem to have to do for whatever reason.
I recommend NOT leaving your CC info in iTUnes.
Add it, make a purchase then immediately set your payment options to None.

I make 99.9% of my iTunes purchases on my iPhone. If I have to enter my credit card information using the tiny little touchscreen buttons everytime I want to buy an app or a song, that is going to cut down on my iTunes purchases substantially. Lots of other online retailers manage to keep my information secure so I'm not sure why Apple can't.

The purchase was listed as "in app", apparently for use with Zynga's Poker Game app for the iPhone.

KumbiaKid- I have Malwarebytes (paid version, real time protection), as well as Spybot S&D, Spyware Doctor and AVG. All are real time and scans run nightly. I have been online with credit card and bank sites since this happened. I check them all daily as a routine. The ONLY suspicious activity is iTunes. If a keylogger was on the machine, my bank accounts would be drained, rather than somebody getting poker chips.

Chris, the CC info is gone from iTunes. I will not be making anymore iTunes purchases.

instead of keeping cc number on my itunes account, i buy those $25 itunes cards. that way account numbers dont have to be input with every purchase (too tedious...our family buys 1-2 songs frequently) -- but my potential loss is limited to the amount remaining on the gift card.

That's the same app mine was used for. The in-app 30 minute call purchases. I contacted the app vendor and he said they had a bunch of e-mails about fraud recently. He asked if I could get in-app transaction id's from Apple so he could block the account using the minutes because ultimately he'd still be paying for the international calls but Apple wouldn't provide them.

Every time it asked for a password, I entered it except towards the end. I didn't have a problem until I synced with iTunes (which I do less than once a month). That same night was when my account was compromised.

I have been reading the responses here and Chris CA I think you are missing the point. itunes is an online business, yes business. The want customers to use there product to but music, apps, book, etc. Now in order to do so you must have an account and yes use some kind of CC or DC. Yes you go online use it once and then delete the CC but this would defeat the whole purpose of being able to download music, apps, books on the go with ease. I have other accounts online where I generally buy things, one is musician’s friend. I have an account and they do have my CC info. I buy stuff from them often and I have never had a problem with my account being hacked into or my CC info being somehow leaked out. Further, more when I do have a question I simply call and speak to a live person about my account and the problem is solved. For whatever reason peoples accounts are getting leaked and to top it off you can’t even speak to a real person about it. It is apples responsibility to find out the answers and make there site more protected from these actions, if they can not then ok I will never buy from there site again.

THe programs that appeared on the reciepts sent to me were mostly for ipad and iphone apps and some in oriental only languages - just as PeninaD said happened to them. I do have an ipod touch, not an iphone or ipad. Does that seem like there is a regular serial fraudulent hacker out there to anyone else, rather than a one off hacker who got lucky with info?

Ok, so fraudulent transactions of CCs should be reported to the CC company, but where do Apple get off all responsibility for security and not following up reports of fraudulent use of their customer's accounts?

if they have an interest in continuing this service, they need to look into the issue immediately, I was hacked for about 200 bucks worth of downloads, and have heard no response from Apple.

ChrisCA, You suggest taking credit card information out, after making purchases. Leaving your information in there should not even be an option given Apple must know by now there is a serious security issue affecting them.

I have contacted my CC company about this, and they are working on it, but make no mistake, this is Apple's fault. It is simply unjust if the CC companies wind up paying for Apple's mistake and failed security. My information is saved on several sites, and I have not been charged for anything other then itunes purchases, much like other people in this thread.

Basic point is, there is a serious issue with itunes security, this needs to be solved. If the banks wind up footing the bill on any significant level, there will likely be a lawsuit of significant proportion. To be honest, I am disgusted with how itunes has handled this.