Watch out for iTunes credit card fraud
March 11, 2009
Over the weekend, my SIL told me someone fraudulently tried to charge hundreds of dollars to her credit card for electronics. Thankfully, her card issuer flagged the purchase as suspicious and alerted her. They immediately issued her a new card.
But when my SIL went over past credit card statements to see if there were other bad transactions, she found a little trail of microcharges that were NOT hers. Some were so small she didn’t notice them the first time around. Apparently, the small charges are “tests” the thieves use to see if 1) Your card is good and 2) Whether you’ll notice their activity on your account.
I opened my credit card statement today and couldn’t believe it: It happened to me, too!
I saw a 94 cent Apple iTunes charge from early February. Yes, iTunes is changing its prices, but hadn’t done so in early February; most songs were still 99 cents. Then I checked my online statement for newer charges. Sure enough, another iTunes charge I didn’t make.
How could I be so sure? I went to my iTunes account page and clicked on “Purchase History.” The weird charges did NOT appear on iTunes–just on my credit card account. So I called my card issuer, disputed the charges, and am getting a new card. I also changed my password on my iTunes account.
Apparently this is not a new phenomenon. See this article. Makes me wonder, though, whether someone got my credit card through an online purchase or whether someone has been able to tap into my iTunes account. Maybe on a coffeeshop wifi connection? Anyone have thoughts?
Entry Filed under: Credit & Debit Cards. Tags: Apple, credit card fraud, fraud, iTunes, microcharges.
2 Comments Add your own
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
1.
Ann | April 9, 2009 at 5:43 pm
I found your article and I had 2 $50 charges on my credit card from itunes. Thankfully, my credit card company noticed those charges and called me right away to inquire whether I made those charges, which I did not. They went ahead and closed out my account. I’ll have to check my statements to see whether I had the small charges on my account like you did.
From my search online, it appears that this scam has been going on for over a year, possibly longer. I’m also wonder how someone got a hold of my credit card. I was just issued a new card number less than a year ago. The last purchase I made online was through amazon.com, which was at least a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully someone figures this mess out.
2.
Kim | May 6, 2009 at 8:23 pm
It’s happend to so many people. Thankfully it was only $100 to my PayPal account. For others it’s been thousands of dollars.
I believe the reason your card was used but your itunes account was clean is because the individual who used your card opened an itunes account?
Although changing or email addresses and passwords on our itunes account still will not protect us or any credit card holder out there. As I spoke with Marie, an iTunes customer service rep, last night – there is no security department for iTunes.
They have no reason to investigate the fraud because they are making money from it…
Truly terrible…