Hack? Into Apple Savings

[transmaster]

Over on Discord's TWiT server there is a report from an individual that opened a Apple Savings account. He noticed soon afterwards that he had accounts opened in his name at different banks with $1000's of dollar deposited in these accounts. His money is not threatened. He quickly contacted these banks and they said the accounts were opened with proper Apple ID's. This sounds to me like a money laundering operation. He called Apple support yesterday and they confirmed it was nothing to do with his device that he had followed all of the security protocols. They think there might be a hack. He was connected to a top level engineer and this has been kicked into A1 top priority. He was told they would get back to him in 24 hours. If he reports what they found I will report it here. I would not be surprised if there is a crash emergency update to iOS.

 

[russell_314]

Over on Discord's TWiT server there is a report from an individual that opened a Apple Savings account. He noticed soon afterwards that he had accounts opened in his name at different banks with $1000's of dollar deposited in these accounts. His money is not threatened. He quickly contacted these banks and they said the accounts were opened with proper Apple ID's. This sounds to me like a money laundering operation. He called Apple support yesterday and they confirmed it was nothing to do with his device that he had followed all of the security protocols. They think there might be a hack. He was connected to a top level engineer and this has been kicked into A1 top priority. He was told they would get back to him in 24 hours. If he reports what they found I will report it here. I would not be surprised if there is a crash emergency update to iOS.

If someone was using his name to open accounts I bet they also stole his identity in some other way, because when I opened my account it asked for my Social Security number.

Do you have more information or a link to a blog with the details? I mean how would he notice he had open accounts in his name at these other banks? It’s not like there’s a list of names and accounts that banks publish.

This is definitely interesting!

 

[transmaster]

If someone was using his name to open accounts I bet they also stole his identity in some other way, because when I opened my account it asked for my Social Security number.

Do you have more information or a link to a blog with the details? I mean how would he notice he had open accounts in his name at these other banks? It’s not like there’s a list of names and accounts that banks publish.

This is definitely interesting!

He opened the saving account through Apple and it is held by Goldman Sachs. Apple Support checked and he did everything in the correct way. The access came in via his Apple card but the breach happened right after he opened the savings account. He didn't say but I think he has one of the notification services like LifeLock. Apple said they don't yet know if it is a hack or a bug. It might be related to the iPhones ID number, but that is just speculation. I have read in the financials about this and smaller banks sometime don't take the extra steps to confirm the ID of people opening accounts. This is one of those situations where size matters. I am with 1st Interstate Bank. I get calls and text messages If purchase something from a new online store they don't know.

 

[Morac]

The part of the story saying the banks confirmed the accounts were opened with the proper “Apple ID” sounds highly suspect. Apple ID isn’t used to open accounts at banks other than Goldman Sachs and GS only needs it to link the card/savings account to the Apple ID (deleting the Apple ID doesn’t delete the savings account). Banks requires a name, SSN, address, birth date, etc. to open account, but not an Apple ID. For nearly all banks that can be done online.

I agree this sounds like identity theft. Maybe his SSN was scraped when he entered it for GS. The guy should run a credit report and check with the banks in question to see how the accounts were opened and report the fraud before the thieves attempt to overdraw the accounts.

 

[raythompsontn]

He noticed soon afterwards that he had accounts opened in his name at different banks with $1000's of dollar deposited in these accounts

How did he notice, or find, those accounts? Did he do a credit check? Did Lifelock or some other service inform him? He should have had a freeze applied on his information at all the credit agencies. That would have stopped the opening of the accounts.

 

[jonblatho]

How did he notice, or find, those accounts? Did he do a credit check? Did Lifelock or some other service inform him? He should have had a freeze applied on his information at all the credit agencies. That would have stopped the opening of the accounts.

Freezing your credit reports will not stop people from opening a deposit account.

 

[raythompsontn]

Freezing your credit reports will not stop people from opening a deposit account.

It did for me. I have my accounts frozen, all three agencies. I attempted to open an account at a different credit union, a share account, and the opening was blocked until I un-froze my credit at the agency used by the CU.

Based on your statement, and my experience, it may be institution policy and not so much a regulation.

 

[jonblatho]

It did for me. I have my accounts frozen, all three agencies. I attempted to open an account at a different credit union, a share account, and the opening was blocked until I un-froze my credit at the agency used by the CU.

Based on your statement, and my experience, it may be institution policy and not so much a regulation.

Certainly an uncommon one, at least among banks (can’t speak for credit unions). I do have a credit union account and I don’t recall them pulling my credit when I opened my account there, but it’s been several years.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

It did for me. I have my accounts frozen, all three agencies. I attempted to open an account at a different credit union, a share account, and the opening was blocked until I un-froze my credit at the agency used by the CU.

Based on your statement, and my experience, it may be institution policy and not so much a regulation.

Banks typically don't use the big three when checking credit, they use ChexSystems. It can be frozen as well, but most people don't. Not sure about credit unions.

Place a ChexSystems Security Freeze

www.chexsystems.com

 

[papbot]

The part of the story saying the banks confirmed the accounts were opened with the proper “Apple ID” sounds highly suspect. Apple ID isn’t used to open accounts at banks other than Goldman Sachs

This! No bank I’ve ever heard of has anything to do with an Apple ID. Other than the savings account, Apple Card or the Citizens account for those using the Apple Upgrade financing no Apple ID would be used.

 

[Wizec]

Does anyone want to deposit money into my account? I’m not proud…

 

[papbot]

Does anyone want to deposit money into my account? I’m not proud…

Send me your bank account name and number, routing number also, and it might help if you include your Apple ID as well, and I’ll send you some money from the Nigerian prince I’ve been dealing with

 

[transmaster]

These deposits are not actually in this person's account, or any place he can actually get at this money. They are separate accounts opened using his Apple credentials. the problem is the way the Apple card works they should not have been able to get them.

More info: There is a real problem yet another account was opened. It is being done in such away to bypass 2FA and notifications. A senior Apple Engineer is looking at it and has installed some sort of canary program on his account so they can monitor what is going on. I sounds like it is very sophisticated hack. As I said his money is safe. It looks like a money laundering operation. Russian Oligarchs are trying to get their money out of Russian and this could be what is going on. The lesson to be learned here is don't rely on one credit card, it is good to have backups. In My case my Apple card will only be used for purchases from the Apple store via Apple Pay, period.

 

[papbot]

In My case my Apple card will only be used for purchases from the Apple store via Apple Pay, period.

I’ve used my Apple Card as my default payment for everything since it became available as I feel it is much more secure than providing my regular credit or debit cards. I think we still want to know what other banks besides Goldman Sachs have anything to do with Apple credentials? If multiple other accounts at Goldman Sachs are being opened then that is a different issue.

 

[transmaster]

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[transmaster]

I’ve used my Apple Card as my default payment for everything since it became available as I feel it is much more secure than providing my regular credit or debit cards. I think we still want to know what other banks besides Goldman Sachs have anything to do with Apple credentials? If multiple other accounts at Goldman Sachs are being opened then that is a different issue.

I use apple pay when ever I can. I have all of my other cards loaded in my wallet.

This is the thing Apple Engineers cannot yet figure out what is going on. Goldman Sachs apparently thinks this is an Apple problem.

 

[BaldiMac]

These deposits are not actually in this person's account, or any place he can actually get at this money. They are separate accounts opened using his Apple credentials. the problem is the way the Apple card works they should not have been able to get them.

More info: There is a real problem yet another account was opened. It is being done in such away to bypass 2FA and notifications. A senior Apple Engineer is looking at it and has installed some sort of canary program on his account so they can monitor what is going on. I sounds like it is very sophisticated hack. As I said his money is safe. It looks like a money laundering operation. Russian Oligarchs are trying to get their money out of Russian and this could be what is going on. The lesson to be learned here is don't rely on one credit card, it is good to have backups. In My case my Apple card will only be used for purchases from the Apple store via Apple Pay, period.

Again, How would an Apple ID be used to open an account at various banks? This claim doesn't make any sense at all.

 

[papbot]

I use apple pay when ever I can.

I almost exclusively use Apple Pay, but my Apple Card is the default payment card. Now that even the security code rotates regularly it’s even safer to use. Again as @BaldiMac mentions what other banks have anything to do with Apple IDs? If these are multiple Goldman Sachs accounts then that is something to look into. But I’ve never seen nor heard of any other banks having anything to do with Apple credentials.

 

[transmaster]

It will be interesting to see if Steve Gibson at Security Now! picks up something on this.

 

[papbot]

Uh, the first post in this thread said multiple accounts were opened at “different” banks and that he contacted these “different” banks who informed him that the accounts were established with the proper Apple credentials. Personally if I knew there were multiple accounts with thousands of dollars credited to my credentials I’d be withdrawing them, my birthday is coming up…well probably not. But only Goldman Sachs would need to be contacted to close these accounts, he would not have to contact “different“ banks. Goldman must be contacting him by email which occurs when an account is opened, how else would he know. If this is legit it should be on CNN any minute now. But even this does not diminish the security of the Apple Card, no one has to open the savings account and it’s easy to either change the credit account number or lock it entirely with one tap. Again if this is legit it does sound like a personal identity theft which does happen but is not specific to an Apple Card or savings account, I’d be looking at more serious incidents that would be forth coming.

 

[transmaster]

This is very confusing here is the latest info: "I also confirmed that the external accounts are at banks that I do not bank at, and the names on those accounts are not my name (the banks of course can't tell me who the account owners are, but they can confirm that they are not my accounts)". He is being notified by Apple/Goldman-Sachs of these account openings. Apple does not want these accounts actually closed because they have installed software to get activity logs. It is interesting to note these Senior Apple Engineers have no access to this persons accounts and he had to install this monitoring software himself and it apparently is read only logs.

 

[papbot]

He is being notified by Apple/Goldman-Sachs of these account openings.

Uh, how and why would Apple or Goldman know of and notify him of accounts at other banks under different names?!! Is he traveling through the multiverse, please have him tell Spider-Man hi.

 

[transmaster]

Uh, how and why would Apple or Goldman know of and notify him of accounts at other banks under different names?!! Is he traveling through the multiverse, please have him tell Spider-Man hi.

That is what is being reported. It is the link to his Apple saving account that is triggering the alert. Not sure what that link consists of.

 

[transmaster]

I think this is a money laundering scheme. Crooks open up savings accounts in other peoples names to stash illegal money it is deposited and just as quickly transferred out of the country. Not sure about the Apple savings account connection. This could be Russians getting their money out of Russia, or Chinese getting their money out of China before the CCP confiscates it.

 

[papbot]

But you stated the accounts are not in his name. So how is this relevant, if the Chinese or Russians want to open up accounts at banks I don’t deal with, under names that aren’t mine, more power to them. Let the FBI deal with it.