Watch Out for Unauthorized Charges From iTunes
A MyFox New York story warns about fraudulent credit card and check card charges that appear to be from iTunes. The first signs of the fraud include charges or pending authorizations from a APL*ITUNES business for $1.00 which might seem to be accurate or an email for gift card receipts that were purchased with your account. The fraud is happening to a wide-variety of people who may or may not have an iTunes account. From the news story:
The high-tech scam has claimed victims from New York to California. At the heart of it all is Apple's wildly popular iTunes. Victims say it starts with an unexpected e-mail for purchases they never made. That's how Rachel Katz from Manhattan found out, "I got two emails thanking me for my purchase."
But by the time victims get the e-mail receipt it's usually too late. The receipts appear to be legitimate, and come from Apple, generated by the user's iTunes account. The receipts show purchases for iTunes electronic gift certificates and charges that hit checking accounts, credit cards or PayPal depending on what the user has linked to his or her iTunes account.
Some of the thieves wait for the $1.00 charge to complete before hitting the account with even higher charges. Sending an initial small charge through first allows the thief to determine whether the account is legitimate.
Many victims of the fraud are having trouble fixing the situation. Neither the banks nor Paypal nor Apple accept ownership. Meanwhile, victims are left without hundreds, even thousands of dollars.
Brett Larson with MyFox recommends deleting your credit card information from iTunes. Instead, he suggests you fund your account with an iTunes gift card. The cards can be purchased from many retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy. Or, you can make iTunes purchases with single-use credit card number available from your credit card company.
I just deleted my credit card information from iTunes by going to Store --> View My Account. I clicked on Edit Payment information and next to "Credit Card" I selected the radio button next to "None."
If you notice an authorization or charges from Apl*itunes, contact your bank immediately. Here are some Tips to Avoid Credit Card Scams and information about disputing inaccurate credit card charges.
via Consumerist
Comments
My wife had two charges for iTunes on her AmEx for $100 last month despite the fact she had never purchased anything in the last two years. AmEx were good about the charges and removed them the same day. But she had to change her card number which was the real pain.
It’s great that Amex removed the charges. I suspect that people will have an easier time settling fraudulent iTunes charges with their credit card company than with a bank or Paypal.
I saw 2 charges today on Visa for $50 each. I tried to contact iTunes but no-one could look up my account to tell me what they were for. I called credit card company and also had to get a new number.
Am currently having problem logging onto iTunes account – it won’t take my password and when I try to have password sent to my email, it keeps coming up with an error. Spent over 30 min on phone with iTunes with no resolution.
The thieves are not stealing the account info from ITunes. It porbably doesn’t hurt to delete it, but it won’t prevent these $1 charges from occurring. The thieves will steal a credit card number through malicous software or by hacking into merchants’ credit card terminals. Most people who get these $1 charges have never used ITunes; it’s just a testing method used by thieves.
I had the exact same problem as Sabrina, word by word, except that Sabrina doesn’t mention that Apple assumes no responsibility for it… which I think it’s crap. Someone is obviously hacking their system, but they won’t cover it. I use a debit card for my Itunes account, so the bank won’t cover it… Looking for advise.
I just recently had problems with Itunes.com to. On Monday Oct. 5th I discovered that 8 consecutive charges were made to my debit card saved on Itunes.com. All the charges were rangeing from 40.00-44.00. At total of $338. All of which I had nothing to do with. I hadn’t used my account since Aprl. I called my Credit Union and they said that my account was flagged because that kind of spending was out of character for me. I had to get a new card and they advised me to call Itunes to see what they said. Well I didnt and I got the run around. I spoke to 5 different people and was given 4 or 5 different 800 numbers over the course of the 2 hours I spent trying to get something out of them. They gave me the bull of the unauthorized charges to. So I called the FBI to ask what measures I could take. The fact of the matter is, this person or persons ROBBED from e stole my money. Just think of how many people give up. Anyway the FBI told me that i can file a compliant at (www.ic3.gov) which I did. I asked them to check into it because I was sure that I wasn’t the only one that has had this problem. It needs to be resolved on a higher level. My credit union gave me my money back thank God. I think everyone should go and file a report at that website, maybe then Itunes will finally take a look at this.
I received a call from our bank (WAMU/Chase) yesterday a.m. informing me that there were 2 purchases for railroad tickets attempting to be made in Helsinki (sp?) and were we actually trying to make that transaction. Nope, never even ridden on a train OR been to Helsinki for that matter! Then I logged in to see if there were any other unusual transactions. Lo and behold! an APL*itune for $1 pending. My bank was awesome. They will absolutely remove it as soon as it actually goes through. They say they aren’t able to remove something that is only “pending” as it hasn’t actually happened yet. Very glad they called and reversed the larger purchases immediately (to the tune of over $300) and while $1 isn’t a lot…it’s MY $1!