iTunes Hacking - BEWARE!!!

**KillerB** · 07-16-10, 11:22 PM

Just wanted to drop everyone a heads up! A few weeks ago someone hacked into my iTunes Account. If you have a credit card stored on file with apple or iTunes I would urge you to go to Store, View my Account, Log In and then click the box marked "None" in the credit card on file section. Hopefully this will prevent this from happening to you!!!

So what happened to me?
I received a call from MasterCard fraud services dept asking if I had just made 18 charges to Apple iTunes for totals ranging from $1.00 to $156.00, totaling approximately $1,900. I said No, not only no, but hell no! SO they locked my account down, canceled my card and the investigation began. 6 hours later I had spoken to apple's fraud people, to the police and filed a report, my bank, and several other people to try and recover my lost funds. In the end, I lost a day of my life to this BS, but after 2 weeks of investigations and paperwork I finally got my money credited back to my account by my bank... NOT APPLE...
The police and Apple are investigating how this happened but in the mean time this has quickly become one of the biggest fraud/hacking scams in the last few months. There was even a story on a major news outlet about how widespread it is. Now before all the Apple freaks go nuts and defend apple let me say I like apple (Not for my gaming computer of course, but for my phone), My iPhone has been amazing and I am an apple supporter on most things...This issue has made me view apple in a very different light. I'll explain... When I called apple less than 2 hours after the fraudulent charges were made they only offered to investigate it and refused to reverse the charges and/or credit the fraudulent charges back to my account. They claim that only a financial institution can do this but I beg to differ. For example, if I buy a shirt at the mall, then I take it back 2 hours later, they will simply return the item and credit the charges back to my card. Apple is a merchant that is selling a product, just as the stores in the mall are and due to apple's lack of security within their iTunes system, a hacker was able to gain access to my account and buy programs with my account and credit card information. I see no reason why apple was not able to return the charges to my card since there is a record that I personally did not purchase the products that I was charged for...but apple wouldn't budge...I was sadly disappointed with apple. So, even if you pray to the apple gods at night I would recommend removing your credit card information from apple iTunes as soon as possible!

Hope this helps save someone from what I went through!!!

-Brandon "KillerB"

**WorstPE** · 07-20-10, 08:51 PM

How do you know it was apple that was hacked and not just your account? Or the other peoples accounts? Weak passwords are the number one reason for "hacking".

Apple won't reimburse until they have to. Like you said, the are a business they won't just give back almost two thousand dollars because you asked. That is a lot of money so of course they are going to wait.

At least your credit card refunded you. If it gets resolved, and it probably won't because Internet identity theft is hard to trace apple will pay back the CC company since they already fronted the money.

**WileECyte** · 08-01-10, 11:59 AM

This just happened to my wife. Her iTunes account was compromised and they rang up $500 in charges. Apple won't talk to you about it until your bank/financial institution calls them. They won't reverse the charge because their policy is all sales are final. Pretty shitty.

**Alundil** · 08-03-10, 11:04 AM

Considering that a lot of iTunes accounts are paid by credit/debit cards is there a way to allow the credit card companies to go after Apple on your behalf?

**WileECyte** · 08-04-10, 10:02 PM

That's basically what we had to do. It was a little more complex in my wife's case. Her funding source was Paypal. So we had to file fraud charges with Paypal, our bank and our credit card company (because of back-up funding sources). Thankfully things have progressed smoothly and we have our money back and all charges have been reversed. As KillerB indicated, the safest thing you can do is not associate a funding source. That way you are prompted to pay each time you buy something. If you don't want to pay each time, the safest way to go is to use iTunes gift cards. That way the most money you lose is the balance on your account. You can get the gift cards just about anywhere so it's not an inconvenience.

**Veovis** · 08-05-10, 02:17 AM

Originally Posted by WileECyte

the safest thing you can do is ~~not associate a funding source~~ stop giving Apple your money.

Fixed that for you.

**jmw_man** · 08-05-10, 08:11 AM

All phone companies suck when you have a problem. A few years ago somehow my verizon bill got paid twice. No biggie right? wrong. Verizon could only see one transaction and my bank statement was showing two transactions. I had the HARDEST time getting this corrected. It wasn't over a lot of money but it was the principle. I would call Verizon and they would tell me to call the bank. I would call the bank and they would tell me to call Verizon. I pleaded with both companies to go on a threeway conversation and they would say no. It got to the point where I would request the managers when on the phone and I'd be speaking to them, but then on the next day when I request that person by name they wouldn't exist. One woman I spoke with at Verizon told me to scan my bank statement and send it to her. After doing so she never contacted me back.

I logged everything and after 3 months of battling with them I wrote a letter and addressed it to 5 people at Verizon and 5 people at my bank, each 5 were the heads of major departments. I got a call within 2 days of sending the letters out from a guy claiming to be the CEO of Verizon. Whoever it was, he apologized, returned the funds to my bank account, and reinstated my verizon account since they had turned it off 2 months prior because I refused to pay them until they fix my account. Guess they figured I was worth more to them as a paying customer... The bank took a week to respond to my letters.

Anyhow, in my particular case, I felt that it should have been Verizons job to help me since it was THAT account I had a problem with. Their customer service department sucked. Personally, I don't think it's the company that's the issue, I think it's all large companies. Anyways, my story wasn't really related, just wanted to tell it....