iTunes

[Stys]

The other day, my wife logged in to our bank account and noticed there was over $500 worth of iTunes charges. Once we lifted our stomachs off the floor, we got to work correcting this error. After speaking with our bank as they filed the fraud claim, the bank connected us to iTunes where we actually got to speak to an iTunes representative. It turns out that our account was hijacked by hackers in China. They hacked in to my account, made the purchases and then changed the e-mail address so that the iTunes charge receipts did not come to my e-mail in box. Thankfully, our money has been returned.
I thought I would share this with everyone. iTunes indicated that if you can not make an iTunes purchase because you keep getting an error that your password is not valid to call Apple so they can suspend your account. When this happens, it is an indication your account has been compromised.
From this point forward, my wife and I will only make iTune purchases with iTune gift cards.

For what it's worth.....

[FFOGG]

Thanks for posting this post..sorry for your troubles

[guitarzan]

that sucks, man. I'm glad to hear that it had a happy ending.

[dannopelli]

Mark, I know the feeling. Just had a Paypal Mastercard hijacked. Like Corey, I am glad you are not hung for the bucks. They are pretty good with security and made me whole instantly.

The thing lately, with paperless statements and our time stretched, you still have to remember to look at all your purchases each month. The new thing in savvy hackers is to use your cards for smaller amounts that go unnoticed and do not tip over your account max. Gas purchases, groceries, hardware stores, are notorious purchases that hackers use.

Sucks that it has to be this way, doesn't it?

[marzzz]

How did they hack into your account? Did they steal or figure out your password? Otherwise the fault would be with Apple if they were able to hack your account there.

btw- this is one of the troubling trends of going from a credit card to a debit card. There are actually more consumer protections and limitations of financial liability with a credit card, where with a debit you could lose your entire account.

[Stys]

From what iTunes told me, my password was hacked. Once they got in, they bought a ton of stuff, changed the e-mail so I would not get the receipt. Done.
When I attempted to download the new Jeff Beck CD, iTunes kept telling me my account was invalid - remember they changed my e-mail which is your iTunes user name.
Either way, I got my money back. We only use iTune gift cards.

[pipedwho]

Just a cautionary warning (and I don't mean to scare you):

But, if your password was hacked, you need to think about how it happened. If it's just a case that they somehow guessed your iTunes password because it was so simple, then you may be ok.

However, if it happened because your computer was hacked/virused and a trojan/key grabber was installed, you may be in for other much more nasty surprises in the future.

If you suspect that this is the case, then it is safest to seek professional help.

These days there are just way too many ways for a hacker to get back in once they've already had a chance to compromise your system. A professional will check every machine on your local network, not just the one running iTunes. And just running a commercial virus/spyware scanner isn't necessarily enough to know whether or not you've removed all the potential backdoors that might have been left in place.

Again, I don't mean to scare you, but whenever this happens to friends, I get them to reinstall their OS(es) completely, install anti-malware software, change all their passwords, and reload their applications from clean install disks. It is a time consuming and painful process if you have a lot of things that need to be backed up. Especially considering that backup/restore must be done in a way that won't also perpetuate any back doors to the new installation.

[Stys]

Thanks for the advice. Thankfully, my wife took care of all this with the assistance of an Apple genius.

[pipedwho]

Thanks for the advice. Thankfully, my wife took care of all this with the assistance of an Apple genius.
Good stuff, you're also on a Mac. :)

So far, all the people I know that have had problems like this were running Windows.