Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

iTunes Monthly Gift Scam Drains $1,600 From U.K. Man's Bank Account

by Caleb Johnson on February 5, 2011 at 12:00 PM

iTunes scam costs man $1,600
A U.K. man's iTunes account was compromised last week, leading to about £1,000 (around $1,600) in fraudulent monthly gift purchases made from his bank account. According to the Register, the man awoke to an e-mail confirming he'd purchased an iTunes monthly gift -- a way to give somebody an allowance to use in the online store. Since Peter didn't remember making the purchase or recognize the gift recipient's e-mail address, he checked his iTunes purchase history and discovered enough fraudulent purchases to overdraw his bank account by about £300 (about $460). Peter contacted his bank and Apple, letting them know he wasn't responsible for an overdrawn account or these purchases. His bank, HSBC, restored the funds so Peter could pay his bills, but Apple only replied with an automated message that said the account had been suspended. Naturally, Peter was incensed. "After years of buying Apple products and using iTunes to by some music and apps now and again, they'd taken the whole day to get back to me and basically claimed no responsibility or offered any help," he told the Register.

Of course, Peter did agree to link his bank account with iTunes, and, as we've seen in the past, that can lead to trouble for iTunes users. Although it's not clear how Peter's account was hacked, as he points out, it might be time for Apple's security measures to face a little more scrutiny, too. "It is completely unacceptable that Apple has turned iTunes into some type of pseudo-PayPal without security measures, monitoring and care being taken to run something so important," he said.

Tags: Apple, banks, iTunes, itunes store, ItunesStore, money, scam, security, top

Comments

5

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular