Q: Got receipt for an unauthorized purchase, please help!

I had almost AU$200 stolen from my credit card which was linked to my bank account. After a week of no response from Apple and being transferred from call centre to call centre across the world, I had an idea.

I contacted Apple through their 24 hour chat for MobileMe and begged for help. It worked!

iTunes refunded my credit card and I will never be using my credit card on iTunes again. My advice to all is to delete your credit card details and use gift cards.

Same problem here. 95 Euros fraud... with Texas Poker app I actually never owned myself ....

And I was charged 210 € for In-App purchases at a game called Haypi Kingdom this morning, please Apple you obviously have security problems! Do something about it!

Yeah im in the same boat. But unfortunately I seem to be dealing with the stupidest of people Ive ever dealt with. First I send an email to itunes about the fraudulent payments. Then I get an email back with the person saying they reactivated my account when its a totally different account...and i sent the email from the email registered with my account. How could anyone mess that up? Not to mention those purchases put on my account were used with an unauthorized machine and I dont even own an ipod. Then after trying to be nice and patient I get an email back saying "ok just send the info from the orders you are asking about and we will get refund you" so im like ok great. Then I get an email back saying "the outstanding order of $27.70 needs to be paid...as soon as you pay it you can start to make itunes purchases again" and im sitting here like ***? That has been paid for. I have the paypal documents to prove it. The money was taken from my paypal and they want me to pay again on a fraudulent charge i didnt even make which would have never happened in the first place if itunes had decent security? Seriously *** ***? I mean my home computer has better security than them. What is worse is I called in to speak to a live person..actually got a live person and all they told me was you have to go through email and then just hung up. Im just like wow ***? Well far as im concerned itunes has had a spotless record with me up to now but when I have an issue they just seem to want to toss me by the wayside. Admittedly it only cost me $27.70 but Im not buying from itunes again. Ill take a cassette or 8 track player with me before I buy so much as a single .99 cent app from them. I just hope paypal can get my money back cause itunes surely wasnt of any help. All I can say is if you get a person named "charan" be careful...of all the customer service people ive dealt with clearly the most incompetent. I know i might hurt feelings and im sorry but wow this is unbelieveable.

If you haven't already, file a dispute with Paypal. It'll take a week but the chances are that they'll refund you. That's how I got the fraudulent charges reversed.

my iphone on January 18th suddenly showed up request to change password, and I noticed in my iTunes that this ****** Galaxy Empire showed up. I don't know this app and never made a purchase to buy this app. Later this app also showed up on my iPad, so I delete them. I did not even run it.

Later today I found out that this ******* who made the app was able to charge $34.97 to my account. How come this can happen ? The only explanation is that they were able to hack into Apple accounts and stole people's password. I already changed my password twice, with mixture of alphanumeric characters, but this hacker were still able to made purchases.

Please help, what did you do to solve this problem ? I already filed complains to PayPal and iTunes.

J

add anotherone to the list...

Recieved the same "purchased from an un-authorized computer" e-mail this morning.  Galaxy Empire was bought off iTunes and charged my Paypal account for $10.66 worth of in-app purchases.  Didn't stop there though, after the first transaction went through, the guy bought another $37.32 worth of in-app purchases.  Somehow the second one didn't get charded through Paypal and now iTunes says I owe the second purchase ammount.

Just filed a dispute through both iTunes and Paypal.  Also removed iTunes as an approved vendor in my Paypal preferences.  Changed my passwords and challenge question/answers.

I still don't understand how someone is able to purchase an app using an un-authorized computer.

Well, I just got the e-mail that a purchase went through on an unauthorized account.  The jerks downloaded some asian game for $.99 (It doesn't even have an english title - all chinese characters) and then proceeded to charge $46.99 in in-app purchases.  It wiped out my kids Christmas funds.  How is it that these people can seem to find all the accounts that have a credit due to gift cards?  I wish it had been charged to my credit card, because then I could just dispute the charges with them.  Now I have two heartbroken kids who were looking forward to downloading more apps for their new iPod touches.  Hopefully Apple will make it right.

Add me to the list.  Got the email this morning of a purchase from a device not previously associated with my Apple Id.  That should be the first clue for Apple to simply block it until some activity is done from an associated device.  Hopefully whatever device was fraudulently used is not now considered a previously "associated" device.

Drained the $50+ balance I had in iTunes, and another $40+ in Paypal.  I had two emails from Paypal a few minutes apart with purchase receipts, but there was a third PayPal email immediately following the second receipt stating "iTunes Store has cancelled a Billing Agreement with you".  The wording of that looks like iTunes Store found something was amiss and cancelled any further tie with my PayPal account.  In any case, I removed that as a payment option from iTunes.

Filed my complaints with both PayPal and iTunes, so hopefully all will be resolved.  Apple needs to offer up some additional security, such as an option to ONLY allow purchases from a designated device(s).  I like the fact that I got an email of purchase from a previously unassociated device, but wouldn't it make more sense to get that BEFORE allowing/authorizing the final purchase, rather than AFTER when folks are getting drained up to several hundred dollars as I've come across on related posts.

For what it's worth, the fraudulent download app was Island Empire, apparently a free app to download, then full of a bunch of "in-game" purchases options for anywhere from $.99 to $99.99.

Found this on the BBC News site.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10535703

strikes me that there are possibly more than the stated 400 stolen/hacked accounts, and that these have probably been "sold on".

it was nice of apple to inform us that accounts had been compromised

They got me too...Had added $75 to my account just the other day, and I got an email that there had been charges to my account.  Friday, when I went to update my itunes, I had problems with my password - now I know now. 

Sent the e-mail and "reported a problem" with the charges... hope that I can get my money back.   Some of the responses are positive, some worry me!

UGH!!

jk

Chalk me up as the next one....same deal, original email stating a purchase has been made from a device not associated with my account (duhhhh but we'll let them do it anyway), then the next day 3 emails with receipts of $140 worth of purchases of a new app., a game caled KingdomConquest. Sent the error report and an accompanying email, now waiting for a response, as others are I'm just glad no credit card details were with my account. How can they let this happen? Pathetic!!!!!!!

Gwock

Well good news is that they have agreed to reimburse my account but same deal, not their fault, no admission of liability or that there is a problem with their security, unbelievable. Their reply was nice aand prompt though, <24hrs. So if you have the same problem I would certainlty encourage you to send them an email, don't let them get away with it.

Cheers

Gwock

Why are they even allowing purchases from devices they know aren't yours or even in the country that you live in without further validation??  I just lost $100 for buying apps in China from a device I don't even own.  Really iTunes? I thought you were smarter than that. They are apparently smart enough to send you an email saying that they're "wondering" whether it is me making the purchase, but that's only after they've processed the charge. It really is criminal.  Sending an email as a "courtesy"  when they are openly admitting they know they just made money off you through an illegal purchase.  And that's confirmed by the fact that this is the only way to deal with the issue. There is no official form to fill out about fraudelent purchases so they will be dealt with. Why?  Because it would kill a revenue stream for them.

I'm really not sure I'm going to use iTunes AT ALL after this.  There are other places to buy music and there are Android devices.  I don't need my iLife to smack me in the face.

i got hit with $80 worth of stolen itunes cash through "Galaxy Empire" when i never even downloaded it just yesterday