Malcolm Owen
A visitor to Disney World dubiously claims she is the victim of credit card fraud valued at over $40,000, after dropping her Apple Watch on a ride at Disney World.
While stories of lost or misplaced Apple devices are a regular occurrence, it is rare for device owners to lose significant sums from the loss. In one report about an April 13 trip to Disney World in Florida, an Apple Watch owner claims just that.
According to a report from the Orange County Sheriff's Office seen by WDW News Today, a park guest lost her Apple Watch on The Seas with Nemo & Friends at Epcot. At a point when the ride was at an elevated position, the guest dropped the Hermes edition Apple Watch through a grated floor on the ride.
The report claims the woman's husband got off the ride to try and get the Apple Watch back, prompting operators to stop the ride. A park Cast Member then instructed the couple to stay on the ride while it was in motion and assured them that it would be returned to their hotel.
After filing an incident report with Disney Guest Relations, the woman was advised that the staff didn't have the watch.
Complicating the incident is a claim that the woman started to receive fraud alerts for her credit card. She says that several credit cards were loaded onto the Apple Watch, including an American Express card with unlimited credit.
The fraud alerts allegedly totaled $40,000 in charges to her card. Hearing this, the woman then shut down the relevant credit cards.
A report was then made to the Orange County Sheriff's Office on April 14, with police telling the woman to talk to her card issuers to find out more about the fraudulent charges for a full investigation. The report doesn't reveal the name of the victim nor any details of where the money was supposedly spent.
While it is plausible that the woman did end up with $40,000 in charges to her credit card, it seems unlikely to have been caused by the lost Apple Watch.
As an Apple Watch automatically locks for security after it has been removed from a wrist, the correct PIN would be required to unlock it before a payment can be made. Unless the code is an extremely easily guessed number, it is improbable that the code could be entered correctly without any hints within a few tries.
There could be other explanations for the fraud taking place, such as traditional types involving the card details, cloning the card, and theft.
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54 Comments
Seems fishy to me. Sounds like someone is trying to get 40k in free purchases by claiming it was due to a lost Apple Watch.
The watch locks immediately after it leaves the owners wrist. So, unless they had a very easy passcode, I don't see how this could happen.
As I've said before, if you're using Wallet on your Apple Watch don't use the default 4-digit PIN. Any other length PIN will require you to hit enter to authenticate and of course a longer PIN makes the number of potential guesses more involved.
As I read through the article, almost everything made no sense unless these people are absolutely clueless. Who doesn't have alerts setup on CC accounts that notify you when charges are made? Did they use "1111" as the PIN for the watch? Did they ignore every best practice for keeping your information secure? When does "theft" become negligence on the victim's part?
Unlimited credit limit? Sounds like they have more money than brains. I know AMEX and most banks are very cautious of unusual activity. Something is fishy.