Massachusetts Attorney General investigating iTunes scams
We get several emails every week from readers claiming to have been hit with fraudulent charges on their iTunes accounts. It seems as though scammers have found a neatly exploitable hole in iTunes accounts, but they may have bitten off more than they can chew with their latest victim. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said her stolen credit card info was recently used to make fraudulent purchases on iTunes, and she wants answers from Cupertino.
According to Threat Post, after having her credit card info stolen during a New Hampshire skiing trip, the thieves tried to purchase a laptop from Dell, who noted the transaction was fraudulent and contacted Coakley about it. Apple was not so diligent; thieves quickly emptied Coakley's account via iTunes transactions.
While Coakley's response (seeking answers from Apple) may seem a bit reactionary at first, the slow trickle of reports we've received over the months concerning fraudulent iTunes purchases signifies that this problem is far greater in scope than one person's stolen credit card. We keep hearing the same stories again and again: "Purchases showed up on my account that I had nothing to do with. Apple hasn't gotten back to me. What do I do?" It's been happening often enough that there's clearly a real issue, and it's something that Apple, as operator of one of the world's largest repositories of credit card info, has a responsibility to address.
