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Apple Removes Option to Purchase Gift Cards by Email [Update: Added Back]

69Mustang said:
This immediately popped into my head when I read your quote:
52200378.jpg

:p:D
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I know...I'm weird. What can I say. The best part is when I had a bunch of the E-mailed Gift cards compiled together, I would go back and re-read the headlines,
Laughing at myself for the things I wrote, realizing the humor behind each headline.
 
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Seems like a silly change to me. It was quite handy and probably was a decent revenue stream of last minute shoppers to get a gift to someone without having to worry about physical mail.
 
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xTIMMYxCOREx said:
Guaranteed it's because of fraud; I have heard numerous times that online credit card fraud has gone up exponentially since the chip reading launched.
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Care to develop that correlation of a technology in a credit card and fraud?
The chip is there for your safety... and you should choose merchants who have a reader with a chip vs those who don't.

The problem of credit cards has always been the magnetic band in particular when using the card physically, while the magnetic card information is just there and easy to read, the chip requires a PIN code that is only known to the owner of the card besides copying a chip is nearly impossible while copying the magnetic band is trivial.
However, another issue with credit cards is their online use because few sellers take advantage of the password authorization of a sale (also the finance institutions issuing them don't tell much about it to the customers assuming they even have this). If all transactions online would require that password (only known to the owner of the card of course) then fraud would be minimal.

If these measures are not in place it is because the fraud that finance institutions have to assume is still bearable... and for merchants of course... Apple could easily implement the use of the password when using a card in an online transaction but that means an extra step that would take the customer to the card issuer's site for the authorization and likely the customer would get annoyed and less likely to just input his card details or choose the card of the past to proceed with the payment.
 
If I had to guess it is to limit reseller activity on the iPhone 7. It is common practice for organizations of iPhone resellers to purchase massive amounts of gift cards and have their workers wait on line at Apple stores to purchase massive quantities of phone. Apple limits gift card purchases to $10,000 in-store, per person, per day. Only e-gift cards effectively remove this limit because there is no mechanism to police it in the online store. Limited or no gift cards = limited reseller activity on the iPhone 7.
 
Apple is getting weird. I wish someone would leak an explanation. These Apple Store e-cards are a popular and much appreciated gift amongst my husband's family members. My sister-in-law does also like I-Tunes cards. I personally rarely use or even look at ITunes for anything, especially since I started streaming music.
 
GrumpyMom said:
Apple is getting weird. I wish someone would leak an explanation. These Apple Store e-cards are a popular and much appreciated gift amongst my husband's family members. My sister-in-law does also like I-Tunes cards. I personally rarely use or even look at ITunes for anything, especially since I started streaming music.
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If I had to guess, it most likely has to do with fraud, sending the gift cards to E-mails. Which if one has a bogus E-mail address, someone has the potential to print off the gift certificate and use it, without actually being tracked, that is if the suspect had access to the users account information. Apple's fraud department most likely has their hands full, assuming they have a fraud department.

Also, iTunes gift cards are readily available anywhere, it's only the Apple Store E-mailed gift cards Apple pulled.
 
wschutz said:
Care to develop that correlation of a technology in a credit card and fraud?
The chip is there for your safety... and you should choose merchants who have a reader with a chip vs those who don't.

The problem of credit cards has always been the magnetic band in particular when using the card physically, while the magnetic card information is just there and easy to read, the chip requires a PIN code that is only known to the owner of the card besides copying a chip is nearly impossible while copying the magnetic band is trivial.
However, another issue with credit cards is their online use because few sellers take advantage of the password authorization of a sale (also the finance institutions issuing them don't tell much about it to the customers assuming they even have this). If all transactions online would require that password (only known to the owner of the card of course) then fraud would be minimal.

If these measures are not in place it is because the fraud that finance institutions have to assume is still bearable... and for merchants of course... Apple could easily implement the use of the password when using a card in an online transaction but that means an extra step that would take the customer to the card issuer's site for the authorization and likely the customer would get annoyed and less likely to just input his card details or choose the card of the past to proceed with the payment.
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Chip cards in the US do not require a pin. Which is a major security flaw. Hopefully Congress can get this fixed.
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Relentless Power said:
If I had to guess, it most likely has to do with fraud, sending the gift cards to E-mails. Which if one has a bogus E-mail address, someone has the potential to print off the gift certificate and use it, without actually being tracked, that is if the suspect had access to the users account information. Apple's fraud department most likely has their hands full, assuming they have a fraud department.

Also, iTunes gift cards are readily available anywhere, it's only the Apple Store E-mailed gift cards Apple pulled.
Click to expand...

iTunes is not the same as the Apple Store. You can't buy an iPhone over iTunes.
 
garya73 said:
Chip cards in the US do not require a pin. Which is a major security flaw. Hopefully Congress can get this fixed.
[doublepost=1473883771][/doublepost]

iTunes is not the same as the Apple Store. You can't buy an iPhone over iTunes.
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Then you misunderstood my message. I understand iTunes is separate from the Apple Store. The user I was replying to, required clarification. iTunes is available everywhere in stores, the Apple Store gift cards are scarce. That was my point.
 
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garya73 said:
Chip cards in the US do not require a pin. Which is a major security flaw. Hopefully Congress can get this fixed.
Click to expand...

Can't say much about chip cards requiring or not PIN when using the chip... (but that's the point of the chip actually... the signature is replaced by the chip and the verification of such PIN happens within the chip, so only torture, social engineering or writing down the PIN somewhere can expose it... and stealing the card that has that PIN because copying it is pretty much impossible).
But another flaw (worldwide) is actually not using a second verification when paying online (the first one is possessing the card as the CVC is on the back). I just don't get why merchants don't use the options available, some of them relatively usable and friendly to the user.

Not sure if this decision should come from the Congress or just whichever institution in charge of controlling banks. I am leaning more towards the later as the Congress should not dictate what business do but the institution that controls can easily impose banks to absorb a higher fraud amount when using a magnetic card than a chip and the rest will happen on its own as banks will see less loss when switching all cards than just keep using a dead technology.
 
YodasMaster said:
Probably has to do with fraud.
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Most likely yes. Between money laundering via buying gift cards with stolen credit cards then buying IPhones with them and the online scams over fake IRS fees etc, apple's implicated in some weird stuff
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redpandadev said:
If I had to guess it is to limit reseller activity on the iPhone 7. It is common practice for organizations of iPhone resellers to purchase massive amounts of gift cards and have their workers wait on line at Apple stores to purchase massive quantities of phone. Apple limits gift card purchases to $10,000 in-store, per person, per day. Only e-gift cards effectively remove this limit because there is no mechanism to police it in the online store. Limited or no gift cards = limited reseller activity on the iPhone 7.
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Yep. I bet they turned it off to fix the back end to require an Apple ID and perhaps add other checks to try to stop the crazy buying.
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Relentless Power said:
. Apple's fraud department most likely has their hands full, assuming they have a fraud department.

.
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They do. When my bf worked there he met some of said department when they came about a reseller ring in the area
 
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