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App store account hijacked - $449.95 total payment sent to iTunes Store in my name

I

idyll

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 5, 2007
502
19
So I come home today to see four emails from PayPal from the four payments that have been made using my App Store account, totaling $449.95.

I call Apple immediately and after being on hold for nearly 50 minutes with them trying to figure this out, I'm told my App Store account is going to be closed and that they cannot reverse the charges, so I need to file a dispute with my bank (or in my case, PayPal).

I called PayPal and they did not sound very confident in me getting my money back and said Apple should be the one reversing the charges. They guided me through filing a dispute on the charges and said that is the best they can do.


Am I screwed out of my money?


Here is a screenshot of what the charges were made for (there is another $49.99 charge that is not showing up here, but appears in my PayPal account history):

cf1f8a69fce773dccf17fcfe313bfffb.png


I never downloaded or purchased "Zynga Live Poker", nor did I buy any of the credits for the game.


Here's a screenshot from PayPal:

8c45787f036b74090c565ec488dcaa0e.png
 
Have you put in the report a problem with apple? I've always been able to get them to reverse any charges.
 
idyll said:
So I come home today to see four emails from PayPal from the four payments that have been made using my App Store account, totaling $449.95.

I call Apple immediately and after being on hold for nearly 50 minutes with them trying to figure this out, I'm told my App Store account is going to be closed and that they cannot reverse the charges, so I need to file a dispute with my bank (or in my case, PayPal).

I called PayPal and they did not sound very confident in me getting my money back and said Apple should be the one reversing the charges. They guided me through filing a dispute on the charges and said that is the best they can do.


Am I screwed out of my money?


Here is a screenshot of what the charges were made for (there is another $49.99 charge that is not showing up here, but appears in my PayPal account history):

cf1f8a69fce773dccf17fcfe313bfffb.png
Click to expand...
So how do you pay for the PayPal? (Please don't say direct debit from my checking account.) Make sure PayPal can only use your credit card on file to charge you, and dispute that if they charge it.
 
celticpride678 said:
Not this again....

check recent news.
Click to expand...

I've seen the recent exploit / hijacked accounts reports, but none that were as large as my amount or were through PayPal - so I am really curious how this will be fixed.
 
Did you contact the app developer? Can they trace what account/iphone/etc received the chips?
 
Wow, good luck getting this all straightened out. After hearing about all these accounts being hacked, I am deleting my CC thats on file with iTunes. I guess it will be just itunes gift cards from here on out.
 
This happened to me in May, only instead of those purchases, it was a BUNCH of iPad apps (never even seen an iPad in real life) and a bunch of pop songs: Gaga, Britney Spears, etc (I'm more into the Disturbed/Breaking Benjamin type of music). Just talked to Bank of America, and they refunded the money back to me, and then called Apple and reported it to them also.

The only negative was that my card was declined before the last of the items that they purchased went thru, and Apple said that i would have to pay it and they would just re-credit it back to my account (it was only $45 out of the $385). Everything was back to normal within a few days.

Oh... and i did a computer scan and found a trojan virus, so that had to of been how it happened. Not sure what site it was from though.
 
spades1412 said:
Wow, good luck getting this all straightened out. After hearing about all these accounts being hacked, I am deleting my CC thats on file with iTunes. I guess it will be just itunes gift cards from here on out.
Click to expand...

I will be doing the same thing. I have my paypal and itunes accounts set up so the money comes right out of my checking. I am going to change that right now. It is very convenient but i guess it is not very safe.
 
spades1412 said:
Wow, good luck getting this all straightened out. After hearing about all these accounts being hacked, I am deleting my CC thats on file with iTunes. I guess it will be just itunes gift cards from here on out.
Click to expand...

Ditto. I'll use gift cards or a prepaid Visa (I just read on an old thread here that you can't buy apps from the Cdn app store w/o a CC, so prepaid visa it is).
 
Another alternative is that some credit cards allow you to create alternate credit card numbers for online use with user-specified spending limits and user-specified expiration dates.

Thanks to this thread as a reminder, I'm switching my itunes credit card over to one of these right now. Setting a $20 limit since I don't buy much on itunes and can always increase it later.
 
Likely someone hacked your account for both the iphone and game and likely gave themselves the chips.

I would contact Zynga too.

Unfortunately it seems like someone hacked YOU and your computer(s), so you need to close everything down and do a complete security review of all the computers and devices you use, where you use them, how you use them etc etc. This includes wireless networks and anything else.
 
after reading your post i checked my account linked with itunes and found over $800 in fraudulent charges that started with some apple mobileme crap for a buck then ballooned into some google transactions for more than $200 each with foreign transaction fees associated with them. Unlinked my account from itunes, called my bank's fraud dept and got those transactions marked and cancelled my account for a new card at the same time. Those big transactions were all posted today.

Glad I decided to stop by and read this thread lol.
 
Scary stuff, I think I'll be deleting my CC out of itunes. I don't use paypal but rather amex, which has a reputation for protecting the consumer.
 
I took my CC off my account too. I'm not usually one to panic, but this type of thing is starting to become way too common it seems.
 
One recommendation I've seen in general is to have a low limit CC just for Internet based transactions. If something costs more than the limit on the CC allows, pay some and get a credit. This way, you have credit card protection against fraud, but if worse comes to worst, you only are stung for a couple hundred dollars or so.
 
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