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Unauthorized charge

I received a charge for an app I didnt purchase. What should I do?

iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 13

Posted on Sep 23, 2020 6:35 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 23, 2020 6:41 PM

Have you confirmed that the charge actually occurred, or are you basing this on an email message?

Phishing is very common, and fake purchases are routinely used as the “hook” for the phishing.

Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

Identify legitimate emails from the App Store or iTunes Store - Apple Support

See your purchase history for the App Store or iTunes Store - Apple Support

If there really was a purchase, your Apple ID password is known to others.

(Or your settings allowed someone with local access to your device to make the purchase.)

If you think your Apple ID has been compromised - Apple Support

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 23, 2020 6:41 PM in response to Christina146

Have you confirmed that the charge actually occurred, or are you basing this on an email message?

Phishing is very common, and fake purchases are routinely used as the “hook” for the phishing.

Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

Identify legitimate emails from the App Store or iTunes Store - Apple Support

See your purchase history for the App Store or iTunes Store - Apple Support

If there really was a purchase, your Apple ID password is known to others.

(Or your settings allowed someone with local access to your device to make the purchase.)

If you think your Apple ID has been compromised - Apple Support

Sep 25, 2020 8:33 AM in response to Christina146

Sending email addresses and calling telephone numbers are both routinely spoofed/faked/forged, too.


If you’ve re-used passwords anywhere and that service or social media site or mail service (Yahoo, for instance) was then breached, your passwords will be retried. This as many web services used rotten password hashes, or (wrongly) stored the passwords as encrypted, or (wrongly) stored the passwords as plain, unencrypted, unhashed, readable, text. Unique passwords avoid folks using those old passwords against all the other services in existence; what’s called password cramming.


Those same breached-service dumps also show email addresses, which means malcontents then know to send Apple-flavored scams and phishing to Apple-related email addresses.

Unauthorized charge

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