Stephen Silver
Dozens of iTunes users in the Southeast Asian country report that they have lost hundreds of dollars due to charges recorded to their accounts for purchases they did not make.
According to Channel News Asia, two people say they were charged the equivalent of around $5,100 to iTunes on their bank-connected credit cards. The bank, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) reported 58 cases total of the fraudulent charges.
A customer at another bank, DBS, told the news organization that six fraudulent transactions led to his account balance being "completely wiped out."
Apple Singatore told Channel News Asia that it is "looking into" the charges, and has nullified the purchases.
Several of the charges were in the amount of exactly $112.03 in Singapore dollars ($82.22). Another customer reported the charge showing up on his phone bill, charged to "iTunes orders."
Apple has of late made a strong push into Singapore. It opened its first Apple Store there last year, with an "Apple Loves Singapore" insignia in front of the store as it was prepared for opening- and it also added transit directions in that country to Apple Maps.
Apple has refunded many of the charges, but not all. The company also says that it is looking into the situation.
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15 Comments
For crying out loud people use 2 Factor Authenticion.
Fun fact 2/3 of all iCloud accounts now have 2FA enabled
source: WWDC
Duh! Use a different password for you AppleID and the other-service email address? If (or when if it’s Yahoo) that email service gets hacked they can’t just use the combo on you AppleID account.
"As noted by the Strait Times, Apple customer support informed an affected user that no purchases had been made on her Apple account, but rather her card had been used by a fraudulent iTunes account. Apple subsequently banned that account."
Chinese bank? A bit of an oxymoron.