SAN FRANCISCO: One of dozens of messages spanning months from users across Apple forums, asking about missing or changed credit card information, shown below. Just took the screenshot moments ago.
Apple for months has been trying to lock down iTunes accounts in a long-running hacker attack involving iTunes charges for customers and credit card number theft, which is a big part of identity theft, according to several reports today.
We emailed Apple reps and are waiting for an on-the-record response to that criticism, which is important to learn if true. It is difficult to imagine Apple purposely “covering up” the hack attack on iTunes — but easy to imagine it wouldn’t turn PR and a spotlight on a continuing difficulty in iTunes. Lots of personal stories here in the Forum threads.
This from CNET:
A number of iTunes users are reportedly receiving refunds after having their iTunes Store accounts cleaned out by thieves, with the underlying issue of how it happened remaining unresolved.
The firsthand stories are a little disturbing to say the least. Users posting on Apple’s Support Community have been reporting that their iTunes accounts and information have been hacked, resulting in gift card and other purchases and changes to their personal information.
If it is true there was any organized corporate effort to keep this attack out of the headlines — that is highly unlikely, in this one reporter’s subjective and personal opinion — this will explode into a much bigger deal and end up as an emblematic example of how Apple changed in the Post-Jobs Apple era.
Yeah, it doesn’t seem like Apple servers getting hacked, just people falling for phishing scams.
Phishing seems so obvious, but I bet many teens fall for them when it comes to there iTunes accts.
-RAP, II