iTunes hacked...course of action?

Cimmerian33
Contributor
Contributor

Woke up on this fine Memorial Day holiday to the tune of 7 emails from my PayPal account that I had authorized transactions to the iTunes store for 7 deifferent transactions between $40-$50 each, so they total between $300-$350. After some investigating, all of the transactions were made for Asian Music, Video Games, Skype, etc, and the date of the purchase is 7-8 hours in the future (can only assume time difference from here to Asia, I know it's not ACTUALLY in the future :)) 

 

So I have called Apple, but they are closed for the holiday. I did have my PayPal account linked to iTunes, but have never had any problems with my iTunes acccount being hacked before. So they won't be able to do anything until tomorrow at the earliest. Can I dispute the claims through Paypal? I have already cancelled my PayPal link to iTunes.

 

And even though it has nothing to do with this, some dude hit my car Saturday at an intersection because he didn't want to stop for an ambulance. Relevant? No. Just letting everyone know the kind of week I'm having!

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24 REPLIES 24

TAZ1NOLES
New Community Member

Still happening...we got smacked twice by ITunes for $48 & $13 each.....going to close all the accounts today.  1 transaction was to DEBIT/ATM card & the other a direct withdrawal from saving account.  WARN ALL YOUR FRIENDS...seems these thieves are using the PAY PAL platform to get away with it.

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ChadEssen
New Community Member

Same thing happened to me on 8/13, $95 total.  Reciepts showed a description of Asian letters.  Paypal opened an investigation, sounds like I may get my $ back in a few weeks.  itunes did nothing.  Did not think to contact my bank.

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keglermom
Contributor
Contributor

It's still happening.  I think their estimate of 400 accounts is a little off - maybe a few multipliers.  I just happened to find the charges on my Paypal account.  The first thing I did was change my password and security questions in iTunes, then I did the same for Paypal.  Apparently, they weren't done with me and I caught a transaction in the middle.  iTunes will only dipute the charges that have not been paid, they will do nothing for the ones that have been paid.  They suspended my account.  Good, becasue I was going to close it anyway.  It's unethical not to contact their account holders when they have known since the end of May (or before) that accounts have been compromised.  Their response is to file a claim with Paypal.

 

I filed claims with Paypal and my bank.  Paypal said ITunes was supposed to respond to the charges within 3 days.  It's day 4 and I'm still waiting.  The rep at Paypal said responses from iTunes have usually been quick.  Paypal said that if the bank can refund my money, it would be faster.  Unfortunately, the bank can take up to 30 days to return the money.  Paypal's hands are tied until iTunes responds.  iTunes responded to my one complaint, but somehow managed to not include a phone number so there is no way to get back to them except by email, which they ignored for three days the first time.

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DenverResearch
Contributor
Contributor

My account was hacked yesterday 8/17/2010, for over $700.  The charges came through iTunes.  I went to the "Pre Approved" section in PayPal and cancelled all those.  Changed all my passwords.

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Photomom
Contributor
Contributor

They got me today as well for about $150 before I discovered it.  I am so thankful I checked my email and paypal acct when I did or it sounds like it would have been worse.   I've filed a dispute with paypal and going to see what I can do on Itunes end.   

 

I have to agree.. it was ridiculous that Itunes took this hacking all so lightly when it is continuing to this day.

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pumpum
New Community Member

Hey you guys got off easy...I got snagged for over $1199 worth of iTunes charges yesterday. Filed a claim with Paypal...hope they'll be able to get my money back asap.

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DenverResearch
Contributor
Contributor

PayPal has refunded my money 🙂  Only took 1 day

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KA-NV
Contributor
Contributor

I was also hacked at iTunes on 8/19.  I was lucky compared to some people - mine was for 89.99 - it was some Asian application they downloaded.  I couldn't even read what it was!  Immediately checked my bank & it was still pending.  They can't do anything until it actually posts to the account (which it did over the weekend) and then they have some affidavit I have to complete.  I immediately changed all my PayPal & iTunes login info, security questions, etc.  Also disassociated my iTunes account from PayPal.

 

When I first reported it to iTunes, via a link on the purchases page in my account, they sent a reply to my detailed message describing the problem.  However, it was completely unhelpful since the message just explained they were sorry about the problem with my download & described how to re-download it.  Nice.  I searched around & found another link to iTunes customer service & got back a good reply & they acknowledged they had gotten the chargeback notice from PayPal, but that it would take 5-7 days to be cleared up.  The bank says it will take them longer, so I'm holding off on sending back the bank paperwork to see if PayPal reverses it first - I'm hoping this week so I don't overdraft on the account.

 

Had no idea that this was such a problem with iTunes - you'd think they'd send alerts to their account holders to warn them to take additional security precautions or something once they knew accounts were being compromised.  I guess that the amount of money they lose through the hacking is still minor compared to what they risk losing by warning people about it & having them close or disable their accounts.

 

Oh, and then this morning I got a phishing email about PayPal, asking for my current account information? Coincidence?  I think not.  Hopefully they'll just leave my account alone now.  Fingers crossed, but it makes me paranoid now.

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Lizzy1911
Member
Member

It's still happening...and I'm the next one hit!  The same thing happened to me today.  I had close to 50 seperate charges of $88.14 fo iTunes, both with my CC and bank account.  I just tried to do the fraud messge center but you can only do 9 at a time so I'm going to have to call them tomorrow, but what the heck this is supposed to be a very secure site.  Luckily my bank does an automatic shut-off for weird charges, like charging the same amount 25 times to the same vendor.  I hope this gets resolved.

 

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Redx508
Member
Member

Add me to the list 18 payment of $163.30 USD to iTunes Store something called World war 2700 Points

I email both paypal and apple waiting now

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