ItunesFraud
Latest
Daily Update for September 22, 2011
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes, which is perfect for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
iTunes gifting grifter cleaning out British bank accounts
On January 25th, The Register reported that one unlucky bloke saw his bank account emptied through a series of iTunes monthly gift purchases sent to an unknown Hotmail account. He was informed of the theft by an e-mail from Apple, saying his gift purchase had been confirmed, but alas, he'd already been taken to the tune of £1,000. It's been over a week since the story appeared, but accounts continue to pour into an Apple customer support forum, echoing the accusations made to The Register -- and, boy are people mad. Apparently, customers seeking Apple's help have received a pat response that sounds awfully familiar: cancel your credit card and report the charges to your bank. We've yet to hear of this happening anywhere outside the UK, but we're still interested to see how the great iTunes heist shakes out. If a suspicious Hotmail account is sucking you dry, we want all the sordid details.
iTunes fraud takes trip to travel section?
Here we go again, unfortunately. Both 9 to 5 Mac and Ars Technica are reporting a new spat of potentially-fraudulent apps climbed the iTunes charts today, now in the Travel section. This time, the culprit's purported to be Chinese-based WiiSHii and a series of "GYOYO" Chinese- and English-language maps. The two publications have a screenshot each showing the apps climbing the charts, as well as an apparent receipt from one customer who unwittingly found charges for the software on his or her bill -- and yeah, we see them, too, albeit not topping any charts as of this writing. So yet again, we advise caution and double-checking your payment history. Le sigh. %Gallery-97248%
Apple responds on iTunes fraud, vaguely confirms said fraud (update)
Over the weekend we saw reports of what appeared to be fraud occurring in the iTunes system -- namely, a rogue developer had somehow managed to snag 42 of the top 50 sales positions in the App Store's "book" category with seemingly bogus content. It looked as if there was some correlation between those suspicious sales and word of an increase in iTunes account fraud, but Apple had been mum on the subject over the holiday weekend. We've finally gotten a response from the company, and the folks in Cupertino say that the developer in question -- a gentleman named Thuat Nguyen -- has been chucked out of the Store altogether. Additionally, while they don't explicitly say fraud occurred, they suggest you check with your bank and kill your card if any of your info was stolen... which seems to suggest that something funky happened to some users. Here it is from the horse's mouth: The developer Thuat Nguyen and his apps were removed from the App Store for violating the developer Program License Agreement, including fraudulent purchase patterns. Developers do not receive any iTunes confidential customer data when an app is downloaded. If your credit card or iTunes password is stolen and used on iTunes we recommend that you contact your financial institution and inquire about canceling the card and issuing a chargeback for any unauthorized transactions. We also recommend that you change your iTunes account password immediately. For more information on best practices for password security visit http://www.apple.com/support/itunes. So it looks like even the walled garden isn't impervious to attacks -- here's hoping the problems were limited to a small group of people. Have any of you guys noticed strange charges on your account? Double check it right now! Update: Apple pinged our old buddy Clayton Morris with the damage report and claims it's fairly low -- roughly 400 iTunes users were hit, all told. While that's a pretty small percentage of the reported 150 million Apple serves daily, the company said new security measures are in place anyhow: according to Morris, iTunes will ask for the verification code on the back of your credit card "a little more often" from now on.
