Did someone hack my iTunes account?!?

110 Responses to “Did someone hack my iTunes account?!?”

1. kaylen says on: 30 March 2009 at 11:49 pm

   fight fight fight!!
   Don’t let the man win!!
2. Erin says on: 2 April 2009 at 12:45 pm

   My account was also hacked into today. Two gift certificates for $50 each were purchased. I have had my bank cancel the card to prevent any further issue, but I am anticipating not getting much help from Itunes. I will dispute the charges through my credit card but feel like Itunes should have a better answer to issues like this. In my case I figure the gift cards have serial numbers so Itunes should be able to track them and disengage them to prevent their use.
3. Becky says on: 2 April 2009 at 2:53 pm

   This happened to me today as well! Someone purchased 2 gift cards off of my account, and no one, and I mean no one has access to my computer with my iTunes account on it. I cancelled my credit card, I tried to contact iTunes, but can only do so through chat. I left them a message that unauthorized purchases were made from my account, and have yet to hear back from thenm. I’d be interested to know how someone hacked apple.
4. lizriz says on: 3 April 2009 at 1:22 pm

   Wow, that is really weird. And I definitely don’t like hearing that it’s happening to other people. I’m going to change my password tonight.
5. Aaron says on: 3 April 2009 at 4:22 pm

   same here…there is a pattern. Two gift certs. for 50 each…Bank told us to deal with Itunes. Itunes is yet to get back with us. Why is there not a phone number for issues like this where someone could be using the gift cards right now while we wait for Itunes to get back to us?
6. Gary LaPointe says on: 3 April 2009 at 9:16 pm

   I’m just reporting it to my charge company as charges I didn’t make.

   I’m making it clear I don’t think my charge card number was compromised, just that Apple goofed up some charges. I don’t know really have any more facts than that.

   Anything else seems like it might complicate the issue. They’ve pretty much always backed me up before.
7. stephanie says on: 6 April 2009 at 2:18 am

   Recently I’ve been having issues with safari. I was not able to load it. Today I clicked on itunes to add music to my iphone and i was not able to get into my account. No purchases were made on my credit card because i have a hold on my credit card but the hold was taken off today. Should i cancel my card?
8. Bridget says on: 9 April 2009 at 3:29 pm

   Same here, two $50 gift cards and itunes told me to work with my credit card company. I’ll post any updates.
9. Bristol, RI says on: 13 April 2009 at 10:48 am

   Ditto – 2 gift cards for $50 each. Started a dispute with iTunes and canceled my CC. I’m disappointed to hear that iTunes/Apple is not being very responsive. This is there issue…not the CC company.
10. Dave says on: 13 April 2009 at 12:37 pm

    Wow, yeah trend indeed. I was hacked on Friday apparently, but found out last night after an additional $30 worth of movies were bought ($49 on Friday). Blocked my CC, getting a new card. Funny thing is, I changed the PW last night, then this morning there were attempts on my account to change the PW again (but the emails went directly to me). I changed it again after my last change stopped, then my account ID ceased to exist. I don’t know what’s up, but I HIGHLY urge any of you to take as much needed action as possible.
11. Gary LaPointe says on: 13 April 2009 at 1:17 pm

    If the bad guys did get into your account, you may want to change your password reminder too. And you might want to change other accounts where you use the same reminder with the same password or e-mail…

    More info: (I reposted this at the bottom of my original post above).
    So it looks like my charge card is refunding the two dollar amounts to my charge card. This is contingent to Apple not disagreeing with my claim. FYI, after I said it was kind of stupid that they weren’t going to cancel the season pass since I was disputing it and they were still delivering the shows, Apple did contact me to say they would refund the rest of the season pass (right around the same time).

    PS – It appears the Apple does not allow you to cancel a season pass! This is insane, it’s to their benefit to get you to subscribe, the fact that you can’t cancel is a non-motivator. Obviously if it was a discounted season pass and you canceled it, you’d pay the full price for episodes already received. Just seems like an obvious solution.

    I still don’t understand what they are doing with these iTunes protected movies/shows if they can’t play them? Why not just download torrents off the ‘net if they are going to steal?
12. Joe says on: 13 April 2009 at 11:24 pm

    Wow- Itunes better do something about this because it happened to me too. I noticed because it overdrew my account. They only purchased one $50 gift card but since there wasn’t money to buy two maybe thats why they only bought one? Seriously- if you’re gonna steal something why on earth would you choose songs?? Get a life.
13. Kenny says on: 14 April 2009 at 7:10 pm

    The same thing just happened to my brother. He got charged for 2 $50 gift cards. I’m curios because it’s my computer he uses and I don’t know how they got to him.
14. Mary says on: 16 April 2009 at 1:01 am

    I also had two gift cards charged to my account. And the strange thing is I just checked my other credit card–one I never use for i-tunes and it has two one dollar pending charges from itunes–Very strange–and scary!!
15. Cameron says on: 16 April 2009 at 6:00 pm

    I am glad I found this website. The exact same thing happened to me (two $50 gift cards were purchased under my account). Apple told me that my bank needs to contact them directly in order to dispute the charge, and my bank doesn’t believe that it is a fraudulent charge. I sent another email to iTunes Support and gave them a link to this web page. Hopefully they see that a lot of people are having the exact same problems, which means either a very methodical criminal or some sort of software problem on iTunes’ end.

    Hopefully we can all get this problem resolved, and soon!
16. Joe Owen says on: 20 April 2009 at 10:19 am

    I just found out on the weekend that my ITunes account was hacked also, in 8 days the hacker ran up about $900Cdn. I have cancelled my credit card, changed my login and password on ITunes and took a sledge hammer to my IPod touch. I’m going back to FM Radio and cheque writing! The fraud department for my credit card is investigating. I would suggest that if you have an alert program available for you on your credit card that you activate it immediately. When you purchase anything through Apple using your credit card check after you order to ensure that your credit card info is not stored on your PC and also that you know how may PCs are authorized to use your account and that in fact they are authorized.
17. Chris says on: 20 April 2009 at 6:06 pm

    I just wanted to chime in and mention that the exact same thing happened to me today. 2 unauthorized charges of $50 for gift cards.

    I’ve since changed the password on my iTunes account, removed my credit card from it and had my bank disable my debit card and send me a new one. Any other suggestions as to what to do? I’m pretty sure whoever did this won’t be able to access my actual bank account, seeing as they would only have my debit card number and not have access to the actual checking account number, correct?
18. Wanda says on: 21 April 2009 at 12:42 am

    Gary, I had a season pass and several songs downloaded to my iTunes account as well. I have emailed Apple, but no reply in three days. I have filed a dispute with my credit card company as well. My question….how do I remove these items from my download file? I do not want to download an entire tv season worth of shows in order to delete them from my account….is there another way to do this?
    Thank you. So glad I found all the postings here.
19. natasha says on: 22 April 2009 at 3:31 pm

    Same thing happened to me today. One $50 gift card. iTunes was no help, I’m filing a dispute with my bank and will hopefully get refunded. Changed my password and took my card off my account. Really annoying! I’m going to amazon.com for future digital purchases!
20. Alex says on: 22 April 2009 at 7:29 pm

    Me too. I had a £30GBP gift card bought. Only noticed when I was updating my iPhone apps, and a message came on my screen in Japanese. Logged on to the computer and found my address had changed to Japan, but the secondary email account was based in China.
21. Daren says on: 23 April 2009 at 12:01 am

    Same exact situation as others: 2 $50 itunes gift cards purchased using my account. WTF? This is a whole new level of bizarreness.
22. Dustin says on: 23 April 2009 at 6:24 pm

    I had a similar problem right before Christmas. I reward my daughter for doing chores 3 songs a month off ITunes. Sunday she had got her reward of 3 songs and where purchased. On Monday I got my in my email and saw 3 songs where purchased along with 5-$100 gift cards purchased (purchased separately) within a minute after the song purchase.
    When I contacted ITunes they had me call and cancel my CC. Which I am the same page as you I really didn’t think that was necessary, they didn’t have my CC # they hacked my ITunes account and you can’t see my CC#. My biggest issue with this whole ordeal is at that time before Christmas they canceled my ITunes (Apple) account. Which means the next time I burned a disk and uploaded the songs to my daughter Ipod all my purchased songs where disabled.
    Now how did they get my account to try to purchase gift cards?
    They can’t do it with the CC#, so canceling credit card was a hassle and waste of time, but necessary to get the charges taken off.
    So the next option is that they got my account with a key logger. Well I run McAfee with firewall up, windows firewall, and my Linksys router has a firewall. I have run scans of my hard drive of inappropriate software on this PC and found absolutely nothing.
    My conclusion is that Apple (ITunes) is not secure website and have holes in their security and are compromised on their end.
    This blog has kind of verified what I have thought for months and wish I could prove.
23. susan says on: 26 April 2009 at 1:57 pm

    I have had the same unbelievable experience with itunes. What’s unbelievable is that they are able to hide behind “legal” protection to sit and watch while their site is continually hacked into and account information stolen. I had gift cards charged to my debit account and have had the same experience you describe above. Itunes absolves themselves of ANY responsibility and takes the stance that I must have had my debit card stolen somewhere and the person decided to only go to itunes to buy some gift certificates. It is limited to ITUNES ONLY. I have no other unauthorized charges. It is beyond obvious someone was able to hack into my itunes account and charge gift cards for themselves. Itunes wil not help me track who it is, get my money back but rather sends me sugary sweet form letters letting me know how sorry they feel for me and it’s not their problem, call my bank. Someone please tell me how they’re getting away with this? I guess it hasn’t hit enough people to be an outrage yet. The injustice of this is incredible and what’s more incredible is that ITUNES is bullet proof.
24. Sean says on: 29 April 2009 at 4:02 pm

    Wow…it seems there is a pattern to all of this. I have had the exact same thing happen to my itunes account. 2 50 gift certificates, and the exact same emails from apple. I’m wondering what systems people are using? I am using a Mac and was under the impression that there was really no key-loggers out there that made mac’s susceptible. does any know if there are?
25. Jason says on: 29 April 2009 at 8:56 pm

    Hey, i found this website actually searching for something else but the same thing happened to my friend about a month or two ago. His account got hacked into including a password change, and he had around $50 of charged items, although he eventually found out his cousin had hacked into his email and changed his password that way and bought music and movies. Being someone who prevents hacking really well, Its not itunes that gets hacked. Its email accounts. OK BACK TO WHAT I WANTED TO SAY. Well Recently if anybody ever looks at Craigslist, because i go on about every day to find music equip., you’ll notice alot of people selling $200 giftcards for like $100, 150 for $**.00, 100 for $**.00, and so on and so on. and theres also people selling multiple $50 cards and such. I’ve always thought it was strange how people would sell such high priced itunes cards for cheap. But maybe it has something to do with all these people getting their accounts hacked?? I just took off my credit card from itunes after reading this. I plan on going to buy a prepaid credit card and putting money on it when i plan on buying things. I would recommend alot of people doing that as well. Its fail-proof. I mean you may lose out 20 bucks or however much you put on it but it saves the hassle of going through itunes and your credit card companies.
26. ReallyMadGirlInDallas says on: 2 May 2009 at 9:32 pm

    Same here – I have removed my credit card from iTunes. When I reported the problem, they very sweetly told me there was nothing they could do. Their system can track you all over the place, but they can’t track who is using stolen gift cards?
27. Shannon says on: 6 May 2009 at 3:22 pm

    Add another victim to the pile. Luckily I had my email open, so the notifications popped up immediately. Sure sounds like there’s some kind of exploit out there, though. Funny thing is – I haven’t even signed in to iTunes for at least a month. Sounds to me like they’re hacking something on the Apple end of things.
28. Hackedin SF says on: 6 May 2009 at 7:10 pm

    Add another victim. I also had email open. I was hit for 2 $50 gift cards and have removed my credit card from the account. I think Apple iTunes accounts are getting hacked, not my email. Major headache with my credit card company all day today. Yuck!
29. ennTOXX says on: 7 May 2009 at 11:27 pm

    i woke up this morning to find that i had 2 receipts for $50 each for gift cards made out to random letting for names to my bank debit card. the same card i used to purchase items through itunes which is stored on my itunes account.

    i contacted apple and they have stated that they will forward this to the correct dept and will contact me within 24hrs.

    i have also contacted my bank and canceled my card, which i have to wait up to 10 business days to receive a replacement/new card. my bank had instructed me to have apple call them to reverse, apple states to have my bank call them to remove/reverse the charges made.

    after doing a few simple searches on this occurrence online, i find that there are others that have gone through this and some saying that apple will not reverse the charges.

    apple’s customer service has stated to me, upon being asked, that the cards have not been used. i then asked why can we not just cancel these cards and refund my bank the charges? i was then stated it was being handled according to apple’s company policy. i also asked as to where these charges where being made from cause i was suspecting that apple’s secure account information server had been compromised and/or hacked. it was then stated to me that they cannot release this type of information.

    now, i fell asleep watching videos in bed on my laptop last night. woke up and checked my emails, still in bed, when i noticed the 2 receipts for the $50 gift card charges. i immediately jumped out of bed and began contacting my bank and apple.

    i found a reporter for FOX on another website stating they are looking for similar stories to do a report.

    you can contact this reporter for FOX who is looking to cover this on national television.

    there email is: ray.parisi@foxtv.com

    i also reported this on GetSatisfaction.com

    where over 225 people are just reporting the same problems.

    follow up:
    apple has stated that they WILL NOT reverse the charges even though the charges have not cleared my bank account.

    also, my bank has stated to me that they cannot prevent these charges from going through and that i must wait for them to clear to dispute them because apple will not speak with them to provide an authorization code to cancel the fraudulent purchases. if apple cannot prove i authorized these purchases i would be reimbursed.
    the only problem is that when i agreed to keep my financial information in itunes to make purchases, i had already agreed to future purchases made through that account.

    apple has stated to me that they cannot reverse purchases for gift cards due to not being able to cancel a card that is already out and about.
    but the thing is that these cards where purchased online (apparently) through my itunes account and they have a number to track them by. so why not just put a stop to them?
30. Blake says on: 8 May 2009 at 1:07 pm

    Happened to me last night. Two 50 dollar gift cards. Apple told me to contact my bank. All I can do is wait for my bank to investigate it cause apple isn’t going to do anything about it. I think it would be smart to contact the news media about this problem. There are A LOT of people with this same issue.
31. ALEKS says on: 9 May 2009 at 9:47 pm

    oh my goodness, I have also been hit with the 2-$50 dollar cards today. Reading all your comments, I’m guessing I will be hearing from Itunes soon and contacting my bank to try and get a new card, or get the charges dropped.
32. mf says on: 11 May 2009 at 8:20 am

    I also had 2 unauthorized $50 gift certificates charged on my account over the weekend. Getting a non-response from iTunes. I searched the web and this site in the only one I found. Does anyone have any other resources on this issue?
    Thanks,
    m
33. Mark H says on: 27 May 2009 at 7:08 pm

    Wow, this happened to me today. Oddly enough: it was done two hours BEFORE I purchased a song! This was for one $50 gift certificate. This was a “print” certificate, whatever that means. And the line-item in the receipt from Apple states “Gift certificate for (MY ITUNES PASSWORD WAS RIGHT HERE!)”

    Apple’s support rep in their live chat, obviously, could only confirm that the certificate was activated to another account, and could not give me any information on that account for privacy reasons. Hah! Privacy, right?

    I am not certain if I’m safer because my account is linked to PayPal. My PayPal balance is 0 and is set to take money from my bank account. I’ve heard both sides of the debate on their customer service. My PP password is different. Whoever got my iTunes password has no access to my CC#. I changed my PayPal password and security questions anyway, as well as my iTunes password and security questions. I have opened up a complaint on the transaction, and am a little leery if anything will be done. I have had a previous problem with another online vendor, and my bank swiftly and quickly took care of it for me. If PayPal won’t help, I have more confidence in going to my bank about it.
34. Christina Hoffman says on: 27 May 2009 at 7:24 pm

    This morning, May 27th I received an I-Tunes receipt for a $50 gift card. The explanation on the receipt said “Gift Certificate for sunset” This is important because “sunset” was my password at least until I received this email. I changed it and removed my card info from my ITunes account.

    I immediately contacted I-Tunes thinking they made some kind of error and was only able to “chat” online, but no sooner than I mentioned the charge, they told me there was a fraud investigation going on regarding the transaction. When I asked who initiated the investigation they said they couldn’t tell from the notes on my account, but it was probably my bank. I purchase quite a bit from I-Tunes and I would find it very strange that my bank would randomly take exception to a transaction like that. I called my bank and they said they did not report or begin a fraud investigation. They checked my account and saw the pending charge. The bank rep said that for some reason the transaction just didn’t post and most likely it was on the vendor’s say so, in this case, I-Tunes. Chatted again with another I-Tunes rep who advised me to cancel my credit card. I really don’t think it was my card information that was hacked, but I-Tunes themselves and they don’t want to admit it because it would mean they would actually have to DO SOMETHING.
35. Mark H says on: 27 May 2009 at 11:52 pm

    Christina, and others (if they’re reading this as the last message is a few weeks old), please keep us updated on what happens with this, either with your bank or with Apple/iTunes. I’m checking my various accounts, my bank account, PayPal, and waiting for PayPal’s complaint cycle to complete.
36. Neha says on: 5 June 2009 at 3:54 pm

    I had two iTunes charges on my debit account, one for 9.99 and the second one for 1.00. I called ITunes regarding the transaction (had to call the corporate number to get somewhere) and the iTunes Fraud Department could not find the transaction! Kicker is I don’t even have an iTunes account. Since the charges are still pending, the bank refuses to do anything. iTunes doesn’t want to call the bank or void the charges. I will just have to wait for the charges to be completed and file a dispute.
37. Sue B says on: 5 June 2009 at 10:25 pm

    Add me to the list….2 – $50 gift cards unauthorized on May 26th. The thief changed my logon ID, so I wasn’t notified of the purchase. No other account changes or activity.

    iTunes admitted that the gift cards were purchased and disabled. Here’s what iTunes had to say after 15 emails going back and forth where I requested a return of my money: The Gift Certificates weren’t canceled, they were disabled. This doesn’t allow the recipient to redeem them to their account. The purchase did go through but the recipient of the Gift Certificates won’t be able to use them. I cannot refund the purchases because this is considered a fraud case now.

    Since I cannot help with this issue any further, Apple now considers this case closed. Any further correspondences received about this issue will not be answered. If I can help you with anything else regarding your account please let me know.

    Here’s what Paypal says: We have completed our investigation of your claim and have determined that
    this is not an instance of unauthorized account activity. At this time, your claim has been denied.
38. Leigh Ann says on: 8 June 2009 at 10:49 am

    I had two gift cards redeemed on my account this past Saturday. Someone changed my password so I can’t access my account.When I try to change my password I get a “Sorry..technical error has occurred”..I have tried to talk to apple but without a password I can get NOTHING!!
39. Mike says on: 11 June 2009 at 9:13 am

    i had two $50 gift card purchases made on my account. Luckily the hacker didn’t change the password or account info so i was able to log in. I changed my password and security question and removed the CC on file to be safe.

    I also checked the purchase history and got the redemption codes from the cards and immediately applied them to my account and it worked! I’m in the hole for $100 on itunes, but at least it’s on my account and if someone is trying to sell the codes they will be useless. It looks like the hassles with itunes and banks can take weeks, and I’d spend a $100 in a few months on iTunes anyway.

    it sux, but at least i sort of got my money back.
40. Tom says on: 19 June 2009 at 5:20 pm

    Add me to the list too – I couldn’t get into my iTunes account and I assumed I’d just forgotten my password. The thing to reset it didn’t work, so I contacted Apple who reset my account for me. I noticed that they were quoting my AppleID as something slightly different, then it dawned on me what had happened. Sure enough, someone had got into my account, changed all my details and had set up a monthly gift of a £10 voucher. (A small enough amount that a lot of people probably wouldn’t spot if they purchase music regularly).

    I got the same copy-and-pasted email about fraud that everyone else gets, so I emailed them asking how it happened and why they’re not doing anything to stop it happening again. Even my secret security question and answer had been altered by the hacker! And why didn’t I get an email notification letting me know my username and password had been changed? Other sites I use always do this, so you can spot any funny business. Obviously the same thing’s happening to loads of people, and rather than confront the issue they’re just passing the buck to the credit card companies to sort out. Poor service from Apple!
41. Denise says on: 19 June 2009 at 10:05 pm

    I have been trying to get to the bottom of my debit card being “drained” since mid May. My account has been debited 4648.00 between Mid Jan. and May 8th when I discovered something MAJOR going on with Itunes charges.

    ITunes has not attempted to assist me with this problem; I am irrate that a company would not have anyone in customer service even respond/ return emails/calls.

    I am somewhat relieved that others are stepping up to discuss this issue.

    I will keep updaing my findings in hope of assisting others with this issue.

    I feel that we can get to the bottom of this much easier by communicating …in a careful way.. if such is possible.
42. Jerry says on: 20 June 2009 at 12:21 am

    My bank account was hit for $50 for the purchase of a gift card this week. I’m also unable to login to my account. This is unbelievable.
43. Tom says on: 20 June 2009 at 5:35 am

    I just read the reply from iTunes regarding the case I posted above. Yet another copy and paste reply washing their hands of it and saying that security is my responsibility and not theirs. None of my specific comments were directly addressed. I’m not that bothered about losing the £20 now – I’m more angry at Apple and their wall of jargon that absolves them of all responsibility. I won’t be putting my payment details through them again. I wish there was more I could do, but it feels like there’s a wall that you can’t get past. I want a human being to actually look at my case and the countless others that are all in the same situation, admit that there’s a serious problem and do something about it.

    Apple used to seem like the plucky outsider, an alternative to the big corporate giant that ran the computing world. Not any more. I think more and more people are starting to lose faith in Apple as they grow bigger and bigger and care less and less about their customers.
44. Mike says on: 20 June 2009 at 4:03 pm

    the best protection at this point is to remove your credit card from the site and simply load it with prepaid iTunes cards purchased at the store.
45. Russ says on: 22 June 2009 at 10:31 pm

    I had the same deal……….a couple of gift cards @ $50 ea. Apple never contacted me I figured it out for myself by calling and asking about it. They still never acknowledged that it happened. I finally got a littly pissy with them and then they said that they could not help me any further and suggested that I talk to my legal representative. The main problem is that whoever hacked me changed my account name. Now I have to use their account name as my account name/email is already being used but the password was changed to whatever the hacker used. No thanks. They can’t fix that for me for security reasons. What a joke. I threw my iPhone in the sewer and will stick with Microsoft. I hope to see Apple in the sewer soon as well.
46. peter says on: 2 July 2009 at 11:34 am

    I think my Itunes got hacked too, because on my computer, it says I have XYZ and on my sis’s it says mine is $20 less.
47. Mark H says on: 6 July 2009 at 12:36 am

    PayPal gave me the same BS a lot of you got and denied my claim. I took it up with my bank (Wachovia) and they took care of it. I sent all the information I had (e-mails, invoices, even a story about the trouble with iTunes hackers) and within a few days, the money was returned to my account.

    Take this problem up with your bank and provide proof! WHen you get that money back, spend it in the Amazon MP3 store or something.
48. Adam says on: 7 July 2009 at 6:11 pm

    Same here. I was recently unable to log into my itunes account. I contacted apple and found that my e-mail address had been changed and 2 $50 gift cards were purchased (apple told me that there is a $100 purchase limit each month).

    They told me that nothing could be done to cancel the gift cards and that I must contact my credit card company and file a dispute. THIS IS CLEARLY APPLE’S FAULT!

    Has anyone heard any news media reports yet? Apple has not e-mailed me back to give me any more information about what is happening. They remain silent.

    **** Whoever hacked into my account now has all kinds of personal information: My password, e-mail, home address, security question and answer… This is all because of Apple.

    — And if your account was hacked, they have that information too!! —

    What can we do?
49. Brandon says on: 16 July 2009 at 2:58 pm

    I am going through the same BS with Apple on this. On July 10th I saw my paypal account and 2 transactions were made by iTunes. One was for $1.04 at 5am and another was for $42 at 7am. For one, I was sleeping during those transactions. Two, paypal denied my resolution dispute regarding these 2 unauthorized transactions. Three, my whole account with itunes has been changed, so I cant even log into my itunes account. Now I have been in contact with someone from Apple who, after giving them all the information, claimed she “re enabled” my account. It still has not been re-enabled. I already contacted my banker about this and they are investigating Apple regarding this matter. It is really sad to see how many people this has happened to here. Seems like Apple needs to do some hard fixing up of their security of itunes accounts. I have since canceled my paypal account with itunes.
50. Adam says on: 21 July 2009 at 7:20 pm

    Yesterday, someone charged over $300 through my iTunes account. Luckily I noticed it earlier this morning and contacted my credit card company. They canceled the card and were sending me paperwork to complete. I contacted Apple about the disputed charges, and they were not of any help.
51. Gary says on: 21 July 2009 at 7:24 pm

    The thing is, you can’t even log into your iTunes account and see your charge card info.

    So I don’t think canceling your charge cards will help. If they actually had our charge cards they’d buy other things too. But since they are just buying iTunes, I think somehow they are just breaking into our iTunes accounts
52. Adam says on: 21 July 2009 at 8:28 pm

    Yes, I’m sure you are right and I probably overreacted.

    Unfortunately, I cannot make any purchases through iTunes until all disputesd charges are removed, as the outstanding balance did not settle when I canceled the card. That could take months; however, given iTunes nonchalant response I’m not sure if I want to purchase from them ever again.
53. KC says on: 26 July 2009 at 2:19 am

    Oh wow! This is ridiculous. I found out today that my Itunes account has also been compromised. There were 4 different purchases, all in a 30 mins span, coming out to a total of $160. This just shocked me. Here I am with a buying habit of 1- 2 items every 2 months now faced with this shocking event. I contacted Itunes and they gave me some generic response that it is not possible as Itunes is very secured… hello, maybe not as secure as you think it is. So now I cancelled my credit card, changed my password and trying to follow up with Itunes. I am a fan of apple, but if this doesn’t end well it is going to leave a very unpleasant taste in my mouth. Has anyone else gotten anywhere with Itunes?
54. Melanie says on: 2 August 2009 at 11:09 pm

    wow! I thought I was the only one with over $670 worth of charges on my card with all transactions between 1-2am (13 in total)I am diffinatly going to dispute the charges with Visa but trying to access a copy of purchace history which seems to be impossible through Apple for proof. Any suggestions?
55. James Milligan says on: 3 August 2009 at 4:37 am

    This happened to me too – they made transactions of £140 in total, with a further £20 pending (due to insufficient funds).

    I contacted my bank who’ve set up disputes, and I sent off 1 ‘report a problem’ with all of the invoice numbers relating to the issue, like you did.

    I can’t believe that someone has done this!

    James
56. Adam says on: 3 August 2009 at 2:43 pm

    Well, this won’t end. I don’t know what to do anymore. I had 7 fraudulent charges, and when I canceled my card only 6 posted. This left one charge outstanding, so I am unable to use my iTunes account until it is billed. The problem is, Apple won’t reverse the charge. Their solution? None. What they are hinting for me to do is enter a new card number and let the last fraudulent charge post to it, then call my credit card company and report it as fraudulent, starting the entire process over that I had already finished with on the 6 previous charges.

    What is the solution here? Any tips? I suppose creating a new account would be easiest.
57. Amy says on: 4 August 2009 at 10:29 am

    Something similar happened to me, too. It happened a few weeks ago but I didn’t notice it until last week. Someone had purchased $23 and then $49 in applications. I don’t even have an iPhone or and iPod that would support applications. iTunes basically said they couldn’t do anything and I had to contact my credit card company. I went to change my password and saw that my security question and answer were changed. I could’ve still guessed the answer based on what they changed the question to but the answer was zxczxczxc. So, I changed my password and took my CC off of iTunes. I chatted with someone on iTunes who was just awful. We kept going round and round. All I wanted to know was if there was anyway to block the purchase of applications on my account. After about 10 minutes, I found out that that’s not possible. I can see the purchases in my history but they aren’t on my iTunes anywhere. Very weird. But I too, am frustrated with the lack of help from iTunes!
58. Jamie says on: 27 August 2009 at 12:44 am

    Something odd happened to me, but not as dire: I was mailed TWO $15 iTunes gift cards. Checked my e-mail and it says “Thank you for your purchase, George Montgomery!” – My name is surely not George Montgomery. However, this Mr. Montgomery was the one who paid for it…I did not. It’s his billing address and my mailing address in my apple account information. Weird. Only similarity I can see is we have the same apartment number (different state/city though). Very suspicious…something is going on with iTunes/Apple.
59. Gary says on: 27 August 2009 at 6:12 pm

    That was kind of how I felt about the whole thing. That someone made a purchase and it incorrectly sent the items and bill to the wrong account. It doesn’t make sense (read my original post above), the video is protected they wouldn’t have been able to play it (once I de-authorized the machines). And they certainly wouldn’t have gotten the rest of the season pass….
60. Mary Jane says on: 14 September 2009 at 6:43 pm

    My account was apparently hacked into also yesterday. I have had eleven receipts e-mailed to me over the course of the day today totaling approximately $400. I got the same run around. They can’t reimburse me. I have to go through my bank and file a fraud affidavit tomorrow. It’s pretty disappointing. They removed the card number from my account and I cancelled the card. I will never do business with them again and will be sure to spread the word.
61. Mary Jane says on: 17 September 2009 at 2:00 pm

    Update … There ended up being twelve transactions totaling $538 plus dollars and one that didn’t go through because I cancelled my card. Apple has a generic party line response it seems for everyone. It was also implied that the security of my bank might be compromised and was told by one customer service rep. specifically that the site was only as secure as my password was good. And that if I cancelled my account with them I would likely lose the rights to play the music I had previously purchased and downloaded onto my IPod. Huh?? Guess we have to watch out for the IPod police now.

    I filed a fraud affidavit with my bank, but the charges won’t be reversed until the fraud investigation is finished. Ridiculous.

    P.S. I AM from the Boston area and would love it if this got some press. I am reluctant to put my phone number in this e-mail just in case it doesn’t get edited out, but you can give the TV station my e-mail.
62. Laura Young says on: 19 September 2009 at 1:49 am

    I just had my account hacked as well this week. I had over $600 in charges in various amounts…mostly books and movies. When i was changing my passwords/questions/etc., a weird thing came up saying it was going to send an email to my account that ends in “mcla.edu” – i don’t have this email address. i am NEVER using ITUNES again and i am going to tell all of my friends my story. This is so disheartening as Itunes/Apple has to know of some kind of security breach for it to affect so many of us. This is RIDICULOUS!
63. Richard says on: 20 September 2009 at 3:18 am

    I too have just have errant itunes purchases… i feel lucky as most of them are for free apps.. one was £12 (UK)… i’ve reported it. Reading some of these reports I feel like i’m the lucky one!
64. Doris Brower says on: 21 September 2009 at 9:40 pm

    Not quite a similar problem?? logged onto iTunes 9/19 and was asked to update to version 9. It was taking a long time to finish the download. I minimized Apple and saw that iTunes was loading tv shows 3 or 7 and 2 already downloaded. The new version then gave an error message yet the downloaded completed. Now, I have or 5 shows that are waiting to be downloaded and each time I go to the site, they say they are waiting for download since i stopped it. I have gone around on their website for help/contact us/email and see no way to contact these people except for if you want to buy something or recently bought something. My wait time is 20 minutes when I call. I tried the feedback method hoping they’d read it and give it to a problem solver. I have not been billed yet since the rest of the downloads are pending. Anyone know how to contact a real person or email to stop these downloads and avoid the charges. My pattern is music, music videos and free previews of movies. Pending is Season 2 of Heroes? and I don’t know what else. I have something else downloaded for 23 minutes and no clue as to what it is. How do you get a hold of someone when they could care less when you have any older style iPOD?
65. Mark says on: 30 September 2009 at 10:58 pm

    Hi, ANOTHER ONE TO THE LIST!!
    I checked my credit card statement and have had 29 transactions totaling $1158. 00 (mind you there is another $300.00 of pending amounts) all on the same day and all of amounts that are more than albums cost ($17.99 or similar) like $33.98, $59.35 etc etc. Tried to chat with someone on Itunes chat and they said they couldnt do anthing – they just copied and pasted the standard response saying to contact the banks fraud department who will in turn contact Apples Fraud Department. Oh yeah tried to log into my account and what do you know the password is incorrect – and I cant even change it on the web – my account does not exist!!! APPLE are USELESS – I have always been a fan but now….. So cancelled my CC and the bank is looking into it – also asked apple to suspend my itunes account which they said they have….but im not sure. Also sent an email to Apple’s complaints – I still dont know why they do not provide a service to discuss your account over the phone – this seems like a global problem.
66. MeToo says on: 6 October 2009 at 12:02 am

    Add me to the list. Multiple purchases, some for “free” apps that actually had oddly priced charges on them. Movies, TV shows, music, and apps. No gift cards (yet). Luckily I caught it the same day. I had my account paid via Pay p^l and I got not only the standard form letter from Apple / iTunes but a flat out denial of any assistance from Pay p^l when I filed a dispute over there. Color me disgusted with them both. I’m definitely taking this up with my bank. Also? I had a secure password set up so I’m still not sure how this hacking is going on but I sure wish it would stop.
67. Denny Hartfield says on: 9 October 2009 at 6:51 pm

    I bought songs on iTunes on 2 occasions and when I received the e-mail receipt from Apple, I noticed 2 charges for $9.99 each — both for software — and neither that I made. I called Apple support and was told these 2 items were charged to my Am Exp acct via iTunes and each was sent to a MAC for an iPhone (neither of which I have).
    I called Am Exp and told them the situation and was given credit for the $20 fraudulent charges. The Am Exp rep told me this had to be an Apple billing error — only my 4 computers are “authorized” to play any purchases and my credit card info is not made available to anyone without my password (which I immediately changed).
    None of this made any sense, unless you accept that Apple is the culprit (albeit unsuspecting). Some glitch in their system allows this to happens, and only credit card companies can exert pressure enough to make them change.
68. Danny Gold says on: 9 October 2009 at 10:18 pm

    Same thing for my GF… she had 60 dollars worth of charges that she did not make. Pay Pal says they “investigated” and found it was not fraud.. the reason? Because she linked pay pal to iTunes. Therefore she agreed. Circular logic. Apple says it would be “illegal” for them to refund her money because it’s a fraud case. Riiiiiiiight. Makes sense. Apple also says that if they refund the money they can’t prosecute. As if they’re actually trying to find the person. She asked how her account was hacked and for tips to prevent it and they said “it’s her responsibility” to keep her password safe. As if she wrote it on a cocktail napkin and left it at the bus station or something.
69. Danny Gold says on: 10 October 2009 at 8:39 pm

    We are from the boston area… want to help report on this travesty.
70. Yvonne Belton says on: 18 October 2009 at 1:29 am

    I just received multiple receipts for purchases through itunes. All of mine were for music, movies, or something, not gift cards. However, it is total of around $60.00 so far so I guess I’m lucky compared to some of you. Itunes/apple is now closed and cannot help me. So I went online and tried to remove my cc from my account at first it will show that it was removed and that no cc is on file but when I log out and back in, my cc info is back in my account. I changed my password and called my bank and cancelled my credit card. I have to call back Monday morning to talk to a dispute specialist with my bank. I hope my bank is good about this. As far as I can tell Pay pal and Apple suck. I hope this gets enough national news coverage that Apple will be forced to step up to the plate and take some responsibility. I guess Apple lost our business after this. Here I come Mr. Gates!!!!!
71. JBarnes says on: 20 October 2009 at 1:21 pm

    Same story over here in CA. Someone bought a $50 gift card on my account. Apple says, “It’s your responsibility to keep your account & password safe.” Thanks Apple. I do. Being an IT pro, I checked ALL avenues to see if someone could have keylogged me or otherwise nabbed my pw from my computers. My whole network is clean as a whistle.

    The really frustrating thing is that I check my bank account nearly every morning so I saw this transaction before it even cleared. Apple STILL would not take any action. They said it’s “up to you and your CC company.”

    If Apple is going to keep cards on file my spider-sense tells me there is some law (or something in their merchant agreement) that says THEY have to protect us. It doesn’t sit right with me that this is “my fault” and that Apple won’t do a thing to help.

    Apple, there is a class-action awaiting your class-act.
72. Steve says on: 22 October 2009 at 8:41 pm

    I had noticed my credit card had been maxed out and called to find out what was going on as I should have had plenty of money in there. I was informed I made a bunch of iTunes purchases, the first one for $1.01 and then several more for large sums of money. I most definitely did not make these purchases. For one, I bought a new computer a few weeks ago. My old computer has been disconnected from the internet since then, and I haven’t purchased anything or even synced my iPod yet on my new computer.

    I tried to log in to my iTunes account while on the phone with my bank but could not because it said my password was invalid. Recovering my password also does not work, and my information must have been changed as well because Apple’s website doesn’t recognize that I have an account. My bank said they can’t dispute the charges because they haven’t been posted yet.

    I tried phoning apple and was told to go to their website as they don’t support iTunes over the phone. I can’t even chat online with someone because I live in Canada, and they haven’t responded at all to my e-mail.

    I live in Canada, but have a Boston number (which is what iTunes would have had) so I’m not sure if that’s part of the reason why my account was stolen or not. Has anyone gotten there accounts restored? Can’t apple tell when a persons account information has last been changed, and restore it to the original user?
73. Laura says on: 24 October 2009 at 4:25 am

    I am so glad I found this page and discovered I am not the only one! I got a call a few days ago from my credit card company concerned that my card had been used fraudulently. 12 x iTunes transactions totalling £260 had been made all on one day. I cannot understand how this happened. I haven’t bought anything on iTunes for a while and I only ever enter my password via iTunes on my computer (I have never clicked on any dodgy links in emails etc). No one has access to my computer. My computer (a Mac) is secure etc. What is maddening is that my iTunes password is not recognised (I guess the thief changed it), but the reset password thingy just doesn’t seem to work. Getting in touch with Apple seems to be really hard (I’m in the UK) so I am not sure who to turn to next – arg!
74. Grace says on: 25 October 2009 at 11:02 pm

    Add me to the pile of ripped off, pissed off individuals. I tried to log into my iTunes account only to find that I couldn’t. It didn’t recognize me. I tried to recover the password, but got an “unrecognized error”. After several trips through various forms and emails, I finally got someone who reset my password. So I logged in using the (unrecognized to me) email address now associated with my account only to find that my username, password, email address, security question, etc. had been changed. Then I saw that someone had charged nearly $600 in apps for the iPhone and iPhone touch.

    A number of things should have set off the security alarms at Apple. How about the fact that the email address that was used goes to an email account on a Chinese domain (despite the fact that both the account and credit card were for an American)? How about the fact that there wasn’t a device that could use the device registered with the account?

    I finally got Apple to admit that there was a problem, but they said that I HAD to go through the credit card company to get it fixed. When I called my company, the rep said it was the fourth call today that she had fielded that was almost the same. I’ve had to cancel my card, change all of my passwords, etc.

    Apple should be a little more on the ball with their security. But, as I told the credit card company rep, Apple has zero incentive to do so until banks start leaning on them to clean up their acts or else.
75. Laura says on: 26 October 2009 at 6:17 am

    Grace – my credit card company said a similar thing. They said warning bells start ringing when they see iTunes popping up several times on someone’s account so it’s obviously happening a lot.
76. Steve says on: 26 October 2009 at 10:03 pm

    +1

    http://dsoguy.blogspot.com/2009/10/what-to-do-if-your-ihacked.html
77. Matt says on: 1 November 2009 at 6:00 am

    I too have been hacked with 6 different payments totally £120 and itunes won’t let me reset my password have emailed them but still waiting….Payment was made on a debit card not credit so I probably won’t get the money back the annoying thing is the bank phoned 2 years ago with something similiar someone trying to use itunes testing my card by buying single tracks and they stopped them for trying to spend £1.50 but didn’t manage it this time!!!
78. Gill says on: 1 November 2009 at 5:05 pm

    Me too – I had a letter from the bank telling me I was overdrawn. Checked my statement on-line and saw 9 iTunes purchases around the £20 mark all on the same date – total £212. I cannot get into my iTunes store account – it says my ID does not exist etc. Great, huh?! It seems impossible to actually terminate your iTunes account, because you need your ID to get in to do anything, of course!
79. Morag says on: 2 November 2009 at 7:27 pm

    I had a very small amount put through my account on 18 October but only came aware of it when I tried to log onto itunes and found my password wouldn’t work. When I got in reset by Apple the account name was something obscure. I have had to cancel my CC and change my password on itunes etc. I have also set my payment method to None so that I don’t have anything stored on itunes. Have warned everyone I know about this.

    Why doesn’t Apple have a separate place to hold your email address rather than just your account name. I didn’t get notification that a transaction had gone through my account. Just pure luck that I tried to log in and found the problem. Apple very unhelpful and sent me the standard response- get onto your bank as we don’t refund! Pathetic.
80. Brooke says on: 11 November 2009 at 6:31 pm

    I caught mine before anything was charged as well. I cancelled my cc as a precaution because being in IT, I do know they have programs that can decrypt information behind the stars. I discoverred my hacking occurred when I tried to update an app and it told me my password was wrong. Contacted apple and at first they told me nothing was wrong finally got ahold of the billing department and the original account had been changed to a fraudlent rocketmail account. It’s straightened out now before anyone could put fake charges on me, however, apple needs to seriously investigate how these hackers are getting a hold of and into these accounts.
81. Little T says on: 13 November 2009 at 2:58 am

    F-ing Apple! Stupid iTunes killed my last desktop PC a couple years ago, and now that bastard website is out to get me again! I had my email open an hour ago and saw a new Receipt from iTunes. Apparently, I purchased an app last night for $4.99. Which app? I have no idea- the name is in KOREAN! And I had no clue what it was! I immediately reported the problem, then changed my password. I found this thread, and then immediately deleted my CC info. The only positive in all this? I had recently redeemed a birthday gift card from someone (and it has to be legit, this is a very honest family friend), so the purchase only drew from my store credit. Apple better give that credit back to me though, or there will be hell to pay!
82. upmanu l says on: 15 November 2009 at 3:32 pm

    mine got hacked as well — could not log in when I called I was told that my account had never existed
    on providing all the information I am told the address is marcelo blanche @elvisfan.com
    my security questions were changed as well
    had not realized that itunes is so prone to hacking
83. Kim says on: 16 November 2009 at 8:17 pm

    Just had $279.80 charged to my bank account from itunes today. Two $50 gift certificates were purchased for Maritz Millan… Itunes won’t do a darn thing about it either. Seven charges from $4.58 to $59.06. I spoke with three different people at itunes and they just wanted me to go through the internet and do an online chat. Online is what got me into trouble in the first place! I don’t trust handling this fraus issue online! I wanted to speak with someone, but that didn’t do ANY good. Paul, a so-called supervisor just kept saying to call my credit card co. Well, I already did that and cancelled my card, changed my password on itunes and removed my credit card info from itunes. But itunes did not even want to know the disputed charges!!! I even said gift certs were purchased, don’t you want to know the reference #’s so that you can stop them from being used? They didn’t want the info! I cannot believe it! Looks like this is happening a lot too, seeing these posts on Google. I contacted my local Police Dept. unfortunately they do not handle internet crimes, but he gave me a website to submit the crime: ic3.gov
    I am not just going to let this go… I will be contacting 3 on Your side and whomever else. Even if I get the money back from itunes or my bank, there is still a criminal or criminals out there that need to be punished. God will punish them further, but I will see to it that they stop this now.
84. Kim says on: 17 November 2009 at 1:54 am

    Go to ic3.gov to file a complaint! If enough people are heard then Apple is more likely to do something about these issues!
    Complaint Referral Form
    Internet Crime Complaint Center
    ——————————————————————————–

    Thank you for filing a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

    Your complaint has been submitted. Once processed by the IC3, you will be sent an email containing your complaint id and password to be used for future contacts with the IC3. This process can take several hours.

    The IC3’s mission is to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding arena of cyber crime. The IC3 aims to give the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism. If you have comments or problems related to the IC3 website, please contact us.

    Complaint Status

    The IC3 receives thousands of complaints each month and does not have the resources to respond to inquiries regarding the status of complaints. It is the IC3’s intention to review all complaints and refer them to law enforcement and regulatory agencies having jurisdiction. Ultimately, investigation and prosecution are at the discretion of the receiving agencies.

    Evidence

    It is important that you maintain any evidence you may have relating to your complaint. Evidence may include canceled checks, credit card receipts, phone bills, mailing envelopes, mail receipts, a printed copy of a website, copies of emails, or similar items. Please keep the items in a safe location, in case you are requested to provide them for investigative purposes.
85. Russ says on: 19 November 2009 at 7:03 pm

    Same happened to me, just got an email receipt for a purchase I didn’t make. $4.99 for a app that was in Japanese!!! So I immediately changed my password and cancelled the account. And it sounds like Apple won’t be much help so as soon as it posts to my CC I will dispute the charges.
86. Srini Venkat says on: 19 November 2009 at 8:01 pm

    Add me to the list … First I noticed that I could not login to iTunes … said apple ID does not exist. Sent an email to iTunes support asked them to check. They said my ID did not exist. I sent them list of last few order ids I had from order confirmation emails in my email account. Got a reply back … oh your id is annette_colette@instruction.com. I replied back … aaah … it’s not, I don’t know who the heck that is.

    Long story short, after several emails back and forth, I am either asked to reset my password on the iforgot page (which I can’t because this person has changed my password and all identification info in my account) or asked me to cancel my credit card (couple of days ago a charge appeared for $25 on my credit card from iTunes)

    iTunes support is f**ing frustrating. They keep sending form emails and really not helpful. I am considering reporting this to ABC’s Michael Finney and refer this website as evidence of widespread issues.
87. tara says on: 25 November 2009 at 12:12 am

    Another one here. Woke up this morning to find an email from paypal confirming my recent purchase of $60 worth of garbage music from itunes.

    Contacted both itunes and paypal and they gave me the exact responses as everyone else got. Itunes said, sorry. can’t do anything about it, contact your credit card company. Paypal said there isn’t enough evidence to prove that it’s fraud.

    What the heck is going on here? I am horrified that Apple is just sitting back and letting this go on, then hiding behind their legal jargon while they fill their pockets with stolen money!
88. Sara says on: 1 December 2009 at 5:21 pm

    Hi There,
    Same thing happened to me last Saturday, and the same email from itunes, saying the can´t do anything.
    I am going to write a letter to the BBC watchdog!!! I can´t believe this people!! we need to do something,they need to reinforce their security! and why they allow people downloading itunes from a different country where my account it´s set up? I filed the complains on the 28th, and the downloads were dated on the 29th! It´s clearly a hacker!!
    Has anyone got their money back?
89. Tina says on: 3 December 2009 at 11:54 pm

    Still happening, very similar to all the stories I’be heard above. My communication with Apple regarding the matter got very confusing because whoever was emailing me was mixing the form emails with some ‘custom’ text. I asked for clarification a few times, gave up and finally said I really needed to *speak* to someone and just got the standard tagline of “You need to contact your financial institution” thrown at me a few times until I shut up.
90. Sally Grant says on: 4 December 2009 at 8:20 pm

    Same thing happened to me over the weekend for $180. My bank was great but Apple is not. First I got the stock e-mail. Then, after asking for a human, I got a response from someone named Timmy. I don’t think Timmy exists. Then, incredibly, Timmy implied that this was my fault and that I should check my security. Someone has to put a stop to this. I don’t plan on using iTunes ever again.
91. Karen says on: 11 December 2009 at 5:35 pm

    Great. i just received a phone call from my CC company regarding fradulent use at the ITunes store. To the tune of $900 (it started with a small $2 purchase, once that went through the user went wild).

    Here’s the problem. I can’t set up a new user account without entering my CC info, and I can’t update my IPhone apps without an account. Any ideas?
92. Kay says on: 14 December 2009 at 8:21 pm

    I have $400.00 in fraudulent charges pending right now. The apple support person I talked to on the phone summed it up this way- “your credit card company has insurance to pay for things like this”. Apple is sitting back and stealing our money – they are just as guilty as the criminals doing this. I am done with them.
93. Annette says on: 20 December 2009 at 11:42 pm

    I’ve just had the same happen to me and I’ve contacted Apple still awaiting a response on the issue, I also disputed charges with my cc company. But I also decided to to put a dummy cc on my account with a $1.00 in the account and it was used as well!! I’ve changed my email account along with password and removed all card numbers, when I try to update any apps it says my account is disabled and that is what prompted me to check my cc account. This is disappointing as I will now have to get rid my iPhone
94. Marcia says on: 21 December 2009 at 11:00 am

    Something is basically wrong with Itunes lately. They are ignoring their customers and allowing the constant hacking of accounts. I never used a credit card and only redeem $10 or $15 card when I need a download. Recently I had less than a dollar left in my account, but a purchase of $23 was recorded on my account. WTF! I was better off with P2P downloads. They may not be all that legal, but you don’t get jacked like you do with Itunes (also wider selection of tunes when you can find them).
95. Erin says on: 22 December 2009 at 11:29 am

    Same thing happened to me over the weekend. I went to update an app on my iphone and was getting the message that my password was entered incorrectly. Which it was not. then I go to my PC and try to receive my password and it tells me that my account username does not exist. after three generic replys from the USELESS! itunes help emails, I found that someone had hacked my account, changed my user id to an account at oum.com and was charging downloads to my credit card on file. I am fuming at Apple. they insinuated that this was my fault. granted I only have two ~$40 charges on my account, but this is ridiculous.
96. Kristen says on: 26 December 2009 at 9:02 am

    My credit card company called me yesterday and asked about some purchases, $219 at Walgreens in Chicago. It was a fraudulent charge. But the kicker is the credit card company asked if I made a purchase from iTunes lately, and I had a few days prior. So seems like card numbers are getting stolen from iTunes, not just fraudulent iTunes purchases.
97. Ed says on: 1 January 2010 at 10:51 pm

    Yup – same for me – Apple needs to do something to better protect their site – someone hacked my password 4 times in a matter of 2 days…Apple says “too bad, work it out with your cc company…” very poor service from them…I cancelled my account.
98. Vicki says on: 3 January 2010 at 9:02 am

    Same story here in Wisconsin. Only thing that sounds different is that I never received a confirming email from iTunes regarding the purchases. Had I received one, I would have put a stop to it immediately, but instead had to wait to receive my credit card bill. Almost $500 in purchases made through iTunes. I’ve asked them to at least send me a receipt so I know what they are charging me for, but haven’t heard back on that yet. Apple could most certainly be doing more to rectify this, and prevent it in the first place.

    In the long run, I think this will cost them customers.
99. Jeff says on: 4 January 2010 at 12:19 pm

    Same here. Charges showed up on my credit card that I did not make, or authorize. My children had my credit card info in their iTunes account, so they could download songs. Several iTunes purchases were made, as well as Apple MOBILEME charges… and then a $250 charge to “bodybuilding.com”. We cancelled the card, and got a new one. But now I have to sign an affidavit and go thru the hassle of disupting the charges. My son’s iTunes account no longer works, so I am doubly suspicious that our credit card was hacked thru my son’s iTunes account.

    Word to the wise (from someone who is now wiser). Instead of putting credit card info on iTunes accounts, just buy iTunes gift cards. That limits the damage, and keeps your credit card info from being vulnerable. There are numerous websites that explain how to hack an iTunes account (just google and you’ll see). So this appears to be a well-known, and somewhat common practice, given the number of google hits, and the number of folks responding to this thread.
100. Guy says on: 5 January 2010 at 9:32 am

     My account was also hacked and itunes refuses to do anything about it. No less than seven e-mails with several different customer service reps. I begged them to call me or give me a phone number to call and they will not. Now they tell me I have to get a lawyer and police report and contact their legal department. I had to cancel my credit card and have my CC company charge back itunes. A big hassle as that card was tied to other accounts I then had to change. There are now unauthorized orders on my account, (just orders that have never been downloaded), that have not been paid as I canceled the credit card. They have locked my account and will not open it until I pay for these unauthorized orders. They will not even cancel the orders. Without a doubt the worst customer service I have ever dealt with. There is an obvious security problem with itunes as evidenced by this blog and a quick google search revels many others with this same type of problem. I just wish there was something the CC companies could do, because little guys like us stand no chance.
101. Andrew says on: 6 January 2010 at 3:29 pm

     Yet another one here. Same story – $50 gift certificate for an unrecognizable name. The charge still shows as pending by the credit card company, and I can’t dispute it until it has cleared. Having read the previous posts, I don’t expect to get any assistance from iTunes. Finding this list of complaints will be useful ammunition when dealing with the credit card company.
102. Andrew Bisset says on: 7 January 2010 at 8:22 pm

     Just an update. I received the typical pro-forma denial of responsibility from APL/iTunes. So I did the usual, changed my password and security question, and delected the credit card information.

     I’m still not convinced that my credit card is compromised, just the iTunes account, so I am reluctant to cancel it immediately. However, I did activate the email alert option on my credit card. IF YOU HAVE ITHIS OPTION, USE IT. Basically, any time a charge is made on-line, by mail or by phone an email alert will go to my work and home email accounts. Since the latter also forwards to my Blackberry, I should know within a very short period of time about any fraudulent activity.

     It is clear from the posts here, and numerous others that I’ve read on other sites, that this is a serious security issue that Apple/iTunes has refused to acknowledge. This problem will only get worse unless they are forced to deal with it. Putting the responsibility on the consumer and the credit card companies is simply unacceptable.

     Perhaps the hard glare of adverse publicity would help. As well-read and well-informed as I am usually, I’m amazed that I hadn’t heard of this problem until it happened to me. So anyone know any national journalists who might be interested in the story?
103. ann mayes says on: 12 January 2010 at 3:43 pm

     I had $260 on my credit card from 1/9/10. Found it today. Stopped credit card, notified local police and FTC. Apple said I no longer had an account which is true because I couldn’t sign in when I tried and I never got a receipt for the downloads. Hopefully I won’t be charged and I will not use itunes or recommend it again. I will be very careful of giving out my credit card number online.
104. Sally Grant says on: 16 January 2010 at 12:44 pm

     I just discovered Napster. Will never, ever use iTunes again.
105. John Franco says on: 18 January 2010 at 3:14 pm

     I also got hacked over the last week. So far $60 in charges. Itunes customer support was no help. Changed my password, deleted my credit card information, and am talking with my credit card company to get the charges canceled. It sucks that Itunes is still doing nothing about this problem. Not even an e-mail to customers to be aware for fraud.
106. Dennis says on: 19 January 2010 at 5:23 pm

     $1000 of charges spread over 20 orders was applied to my iTune account first three days of January. Itune customer service was no help! Cancelled my credit card. My credit card is now investigating. I wonder if Steve Jobs knows that Itunes sucks?
107. Sean says on: 20 January 2010 at 1:05 pm

     700 euro worth of Music stolen from my I tunes account. Had to cancel my credit card. Abysmal service from Apple. How can they say they have a customer care service. Apple….unbelievable. They dont care.
108. PWNbear says on: 22 January 2010 at 5:42 pm

     On my account €200,- was spend without ne knowing!
     - TomTom app (wich I can’t even use, since I got an iPod Touch)
     - and alot of crappy (sorry) Michael Jackson music

     Within 2 days I got no money Left, except some cash not stored on my bank account WTF!
109. Pete says on: 23 January 2010 at 11:39 am

     Me as well.
     500 quids worth of charges done on one day. Apple have been pretty pants. Giving generic replies about identify theft which it so obviously isn’t.
     There has been no indication from them that they are changing their system to stop it happening again so im moving to just using small amount gift cards so if it happens again they can only nick a few quid. (If apple can get me back into my account of course)

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