itunes credit card fraud

also, I am reading people saying you have to contact your CC company etc... and apple is like every other retailer, but there is a difference between someone stealing your credit card and buying a bunch of stuff at best buy, and someone hacking through an ineffective security system that apple implemented specifically to protect you from this sort of activity.

It happened to me today 6/10/2010. Fortunately, I have it set up that whenever a charge is made to my credit card, I get an instant email advising me of the charge. I first got a charge for just over a $1, then two charges for $50 each. After calling the number that appears on the online statement for Apple and getting a recording that I need to go online for apple.com/support/cc and seeing that there was no helpful info, I contacted my credit card issuer, they immediately canceled the card and told me that once the payment authorizations post, I can dispute the charges and they normally issue a refund within 24 hours. I also changed my login password for itunes and immediately removed my credit card from the itunes account.

Just for kicks, I reviewed the two purchases and got the $50 gift card redemption codes later on in the day and fortunately, neither one was yet redeemed. So, I redeemed the codes to my own Itunes account and now have a $100 credit which I will use eventually. I am only out the $1 and change used for the one download that the credit card thief used to see if my card was valid.

I am still wondering how the thief got into my itunes account. I wonder if it's a rogue apple employee or if I have some type of keyboard logger on my Apple computer, although if that was the case, I buy so much online, that I am sure, my other cards would have been compromised by now.

I think I figured out how they do it, It's very easy to get information about people via the web. People have a lot of information posted about themselves on facebook, myspace, etc. With very little info such as first and last name and a birthdate, you can easily get a ton of additional info on sites like peoplefinders.

Therefore, if you forget your password, you simply request a login to itunes by typing in your email address and answering a security question, such as "what is your mother's maiden name?" With all these info sites out on the web, this info could be found in a matter of seconds. Then once a thief is into your account, they simply check to make sure your payment method is valid by buying a song and then away they go.

The simple way to protect yourself is to use an email address and security question that isn't known to outside sources and don't keep a credit card on file. Changing passwords often is also recommended. You can also provide a false answer to the security question that wouldn't show up in databases. Keep the false answers in a private secure area that can't be found by an online hacker.

2 weeks ago, I received a replacement debit card from Bank of America. In the letter, they stated that “*+We learned that account information from certain Bank of America debit cards may have been compromised at an undisclosed third party location+*.” It was a direct replacement for a spare 2nd card that I rarely used and kept in my desk. My wife has and uses the primary card.

Just tonight, I tried to buy an iTunes app online and it said my cc info needed to be updated. Upon seeing the last 4 digits of the cc number on file, I realized it was the same card, so I had apparently used it to set up iTunes.

I never saw any fraudulent purchases, so *I think MY card was just one of many that the hackers owned just hadn’t gotten to trying out yet.* Which means this replacement card shows that Apple iTunes had quietly located the source and extent of the leak, and has/is taking the necessary steps to fix it.

Same thing happened to me 6-14-10.... small initial charge to test the waters $1.05 ..... then $1 ....then $19.... then I caught on and canceled the card.....

very disturbing.

not my buying pattern...... Chinese titles and ipad apps, movies.


Anyway, I thought I would mention one extra tidbit: the last app I downloaded, which directly preceded my problems was line2 for my iphone-just the demo( not to purchase) ....right after downloading that all the problems started : (

??

Apple better get on this!

Last night I had the pleasure of being a victim of itunes unsecure site.

Over a year ago I made the unfortunate decision to purchase a video on itunes and I have not been back since. The video was fine but I just normally don't purchase videos online. I even forgot I had an account on itunes.

I received four emails from itunes thanking me for my multiple purchases totaling almost $170.00.

When I tried to log into my account on itunes I received the message: "This Apple ID has been disabled for security reasons" which I found out by searching frequently asked questions that "This message means that someone was unable to sign in to this account multiple times.The Apple ID system will disable the account to prevent unauthorized people from gaining access to your information"

That's nice that they did this AFTER my account was hacked into. That right there should have given any moren with a brain the clue that something was going on.

When I made the purchase on itunes over a year ago, I was not aware that they were storing my CC information. If they are unable to keep their site secure and to keep hackers from accessing their site then they should not even offer the service to keep your CC information.

What really infuriates me is that when I was able to get into my account and remove my CC number, I noticed that there is also a box for my CC security code which was blank. My question is how was the hacker able to make multiple purchases through itunes onto my CC without giving my security code? The purchases should never have been able to be completed without that code and I place the blame squarely on itunes for not having a secure site and for allowing a purchase without the security code number.
Its sort of like the same scenario of if I had my CC stolen and it was used at a brick and morter store and the salesperson didn’t bother to ask for ID when the thief made a purchase or when the signatures don’t match. What’s the point of having security measures if no one is going to use them? At that point it also becomes the fault of the merchant for not taking security measures.

Yes, I have contacted my CC company and canceled my CC and I was told once the charges show up on my statement I can make a claim. However I should not have to go through this trouble of calling my CC company to dispute the charges, contacting companies that have my CC on file and letting them know it was canceled so they cannot use it to pay my monthly fees/bills and that I have to also contact them when my new CC shows up with the new numbers and all the other headaches that will go with this

Ramerac, I feel your pain! I was hit yesterday morning... HIT BAD! To the tune of $1,009 in charges of movies, apps, music, games, ringtones, etc.

My iTunes account was hacked and they purchased via Pay Pal which it was linked to. They got my balance in Pay Pal... they hit my bank account directly... then the backup credit card on file, which was my mothers.

It has been verified that Pay Pal was not directly accessed because there were no logins in the time frame of the theft (8 a.m.-11 a.m). They have deleted my billing agreements with them. All iTunes have done is disable my account, and tell me to have my banks contact them. Of course I can't do anything until it all clears. THEN I can file disputes. It disgusts me the breach in security through iTunes store! I have done all of my banking and had Pay Pal for YEARS and never had this happen! I am a very careful consumer. I don't know if I will ever use iTunes again!

I was the victim of some lousy ????? using my i tune account to purchase £230.00 worth of stuff using my debit card. It only came to light when I checked my bank and noticed all these pending transactions. On contacting my bank they informed me that it was from i tunes. I have only ever purchased 3 tunes one for 79p one for 59p and one for 9p. As I am not very technical with a laptop I cannot understand how can someone purchase music and whatever else it was they bought without it coming to my computer can anyone explain it to me. And will they be able to find out where that music has gone to

If you contact iTunes support they will disable your account, but you cannot update any apps or ANYTHING without it. There is no option to not put some kind of payment option in iTunes which ***** because I hardly ever buy anything other than an occassional .99 cent app.

So to update... Pay Pal got all the charges reversed for me. I am not waiting for them to hit my bank account which will take 3-5 business days. Then I will have to contact my bank to get them to reverse all of the overdraft fees. These criminals are sneaky! My iTunes account was disabled, but I had them reinstate it yesterday so I could DL the OS4 software and update some apps. When I went in to my billing info, I noticed the answer to my security question had been changed. So everytime I had tried to change my password, the theives were being able to reset it! I changed this immediately once I found it, to an all new security question and answer. Don't you know that a few hours later, I got an e-mail from Apple stating:

apple wrote:
Because too many invalid attempts have been made to answer your security questions, we were unable to reset the password for your Apple ID xxxxxxxx. The ability to reset your password has been temporarily disabled to protect the security of your account. You will be able to create a new password in eight hours.

If you believe you have received this email in error, or that an unauthorized person has attempted to access your account, don't worry — your account is still secure and no one has been given access to it.

I LOVE how it says not to worry! Those theives were trying hard to get back in to my account! They got in once, whose to say they cannot get in again?! Once my bank account crap is straigtened up and I have money I can access, I am getting an iTunes gift card for the payment option so they can't rob me blind!

I was hit by the "In App" purchase of FriendCaller for 8 transactions today, total of $480. I'd like to see that Apple is doing something to look into FriendCaller or determine what's happening.

This will seriously limit my App store purchases if they aren't going to take any accountability for allowing all of these transactions to go through unchecked.

It seems Wells Fargo was smart enough to detect it and call me - maybe someone at Apple could?

There is no option to pick none if Itunes claims you owe them money for charges that didnt clear, though.

Correct. You need to input a valid credit card to pay for those purchases then you can select none.

I have never used itunes, BUT my credit card was attacked yesterday by itunes and they tried to charge over $300 to my credit card. I tried to set up an itune account about June 1st, but I could never get to the itunes store, kept saying could not open the store. I cancelled everything, after trying to get itunes downloaded for hours. Yesterday things started to get charged to my account. Thank God I have a great CC company. They cancelled my card at once and will be sending me the papers I need to file charges to get my money back. So I got on line to see what was in my itunes account (which should have been cancelled) Only thing that was the same was my email address, password was different, birthdate was different. When someone went into a closed account and reopened it with different information except for the credit card and email address that should have been a red flag. And for those of you who say I should have seen something in my email, my Mother passed away last week and I haven't been on line at all during the last week. It has to be someone in the loop to see which accounts are not used and they believe they will be the easy ones. It appears even when you cancel an account you don't use they still keep it, or someone in the company does.

I woke up this morning to a call from Bank of America...my credit card company. Almost $5000 worth of charges. The card account was immediately terminated. My concern is with I-Tunes. There is no customer service so I sent two emails. The charges stemmed from 6/24/2010 ($1023) and today; it definitely appears to have come from someone hacking the I-Tunes account. As someone stated (and I hope this is correct), it is between my bank and I-Tunes. BTW, I haven't used my account since last May.

This is the best. After they charged my account with all those charges, I tried to check out some of the charges to see what they were, I was informed that I cannot check out anything becauae I don't have itunes downloaded. How could I have ordered anything since that is the case. They need to investigate since I had never used itunes and its not even on my computer. Waiting for their reply.

I tried to open an account. It took me through all the steps, then it asked for CC information, I started NOT to finish bUt itunes is supposed to be a very good company. After giving them all the information I tried to go to the itunes store it told me I needed to download it again as something had gone wrong. I spent about 2 hours trying to get to an itunes store. I finally gave up and cancelled all my information ( so I thought) Then the charges started coming in about 3 weeks later. Also itunes is the ONLY company that I used that card with online. Someone is getting the card numbers from itunes somehow!!!