PayPal Charges Result in Renewed Publicity Surrounding iTunes Account Phishing Attacks
At least one group of scammers has found a way to charge thousands of dollars to iTunes accounts through PayPal. One targeted customer told us, "My account was charged over $4700. I called security at PayPal and was told a large number of iTunes store accounts were compromised." His email was filled with nearly 50 receipts from PayPall for $99.99 each. He was able to catch it before his bank disbursed funds to PayPal.
According to All Things Digital, this latest round of unauthorized charges again appears to be stemming from nothing more than successful phishing attempts and there has been no security breach within the iTunes Store or PayPal.There's no security hole in iTunes and if you've been unfortunate enough to have hundreds of dollars in unauthorized purchases charged to your iTunes acount it's likely because you've fallen victim to a phishing scam - a variation on the one that's been around for years now. Sources close to Apple tell me iTunes has not been compromised and the company isn't aware of any sudden increase in fraudulent transactions.
Reports of "App Store hacked" surfaced earlier last month when one developer was able to use a relatively small number of iTunes Store accounts apparently compromised by such means to game the App Store rankings. With over 100 million accounts linked to credit card numbers, the iTunes Store is a popular target for phishing attempts, and Apple has repeatedly reminded customers to maintain proper security over their account information and to contact their credit card companies should unauthorized charges appear on their accounts.Top Rated Comments
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19 months ago
Recently, my account was 'hacked' but it was not linked to PayPal. What pissed me off is Apple protects the hacker, and refuses to disclose who they are, or even their username or e-mail address. My bank did a charge-back and I did get every penny back, with no thanks to Apple.
19 months ago
Hard to defend against people giving away their own information...
0.o app store hacked!?! whooa!! hope viruses for macs arent next :(
Read the original post. Phishing.
19 months ago
Recently, my account was 'hacked' but it was not linked to PayPal. What pissed me off is Apple protects the hacker, and refuses to disclose who they are, or even their username or e-mail address. My bank did a charge-back and I did get every penny back, with no thanks to Apple.
For legal reasons, Apple wouldn't release that information to just anyone. Rest assured, though, that the info is certainly being provided to the authorities.
19 months ago
can you remove your payment info from your account? I usually use Gift Cards codes.
19 months ago
Jeez, I wish more specifics about the "hack" would surface. If this is a case of someone using well known passwords to gain entry to "weakly protected accounts", then in reality it has nothing to do with itunes (though there may be aspects of itunes/appstore that help to facilitate the movement of funds once hacked). So for someone like me, who has a strong password and don't click on browser links that launch itunes, ever, I want to know if this is a general issue or a typical "lame user" issue.
19 months ago
This is just a case where if you get 100 million people then you also have a million first percentile idiots. I bet it's not hard to fool people who are in that first percentile club,
OK even so. Apple could make the system safer. For example it could simply not let you type in a text string that exists on your keyring except under certain conditions. Or Safari could look for common names in a URL like "paypal" that are not in a domain owned by paypal. There are 100 other thiings that could do
I think Apple is correct to say there are no security holes in there system. But that is not that same as saying it is as safe as they can make it. "not defective" is just the minimal level of safety
OK even so. Apple could make the system safer. For example it could simply not let you type in a text string that exists on your keyring except under certain conditions. Or Safari could look for common names in a URL like "paypal" that are not in a domain owned by paypal. There are 100 other thiings that could do
I think Apple is correct to say there are no security holes in there system. But that is not that same as saying it is as safe as they can make it. "not defective" is just the minimal level of safety
19 months ago
The SCARY part of this is... Have you ever tried to call PAYPAL/EBAY?
It's a nightmare to say the least. All of their customer service is run by Mormons in Utah, so if you even say the word "damn" you're likely to get hung up on if you are even successful in getting live help at all. And that's no lie.
And PAYPAL/EBAY NEVER admits they made a mistake EVER or shouldn't have authorized a transaction!
I once sold something on EBAY and the transaction was clearly limited to U.S. ONLY, yet Ebay allowed someone in Europe to bid and win the auction. I refused to ship the item and got negative feedback for which there is no recourse even though it was Ebay's fault. Ebay/Paypal wouldn't do anything except reverse the payment.
I once had someone charge ITALIAN RAIL TICKETS on my Paypal card at an Italian restaurant in Philadelphia. Yes, I mean rail tickets totaling over $1000 IN ITALY and they didn't believe I wasn't in ITALY! I said, "Are you people nuts? You can clearly see I just used the card at an Italian restaurant in Philadelphia. How could I have been in ITALY AN HOUR LATER?"
After my temper flared and I was hung up on once by a Mormon in Utah, it was eventually resolved, but not without a huge fight and it took an entire week to get the money back. Grrrrrrrrrrr.
Finally, many people assume PAYPAL is like a bank and governed by the FEDS or SEC guidelines for transactions. WRONG!
Google Paypal problems and you'll see how many anti-Paypal websites there are.
In my opinion, EBAY/PAYPAL should be investigated by the FEDS for anti-trust violations, but that's a whole other can of worms and I'll end my rant here.
But, I seriously doubt this is Apple's fault.
It's a nightmare to say the least. All of their customer service is run by Mormons in Utah, so if you even say the word "damn" you're likely to get hung up on if you are even successful in getting live help at all. And that's no lie.
And PAYPAL/EBAY NEVER admits they made a mistake EVER or shouldn't have authorized a transaction!
I once sold something on EBAY and the transaction was clearly limited to U.S. ONLY, yet Ebay allowed someone in Europe to bid and win the auction. I refused to ship the item and got negative feedback for which there is no recourse even though it was Ebay's fault. Ebay/Paypal wouldn't do anything except reverse the payment.
I once had someone charge ITALIAN RAIL TICKETS on my Paypal card at an Italian restaurant in Philadelphia. Yes, I mean rail tickets totaling over $1000 IN ITALY and they didn't believe I wasn't in ITALY! I said, "Are you people nuts? You can clearly see I just used the card at an Italian restaurant in Philadelphia. How could I have been in ITALY AN HOUR LATER?"
After my temper flared and I was hung up on once by a Mormon in Utah, it was eventually resolved, but not without a huge fight and it took an entire week to get the money back. Grrrrrrrrrrr.
Finally, many people assume PAYPAL is like a bank and governed by the FEDS or SEC guidelines for transactions. WRONG!
Google Paypal problems and you'll see how many anti-Paypal websites there are.
In my opinion, EBAY/PAYPAL should be investigated by the FEDS for anti-trust violations, but that's a whole other can of worms and I'll end my rant here.
But, I seriously doubt this is Apple's fault.
19 months ago
This is why I only ever have at most $200 in my iTunes wallet at one time, and I use the gift cards to fill it.
19 months ago
I still can't believe these lame "Phishing" techniques still work. :confused:
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