Scheme sees PayPal accounts drained via iTunes charges
updated 04:05 pm EDT, Mon August 23, 2010
Apple maintains old position on fraud
Some people are finding their PayPal accounts emptied of hundreds or thousands of dollars because of fraudulent iTunes purchases, reports reveal. One person complains of having been charged over $4,700, in a bill linked to almost 50 PayPal receipts worth $99.99 each. A more conventional example is a San Francisco woman, who was billed $650. By catching and reporting the problem early, it should be possible to get Apple or PayPal to reverse unwanted transactions.
While both companies are believed to be aware of the issue, Apple's stance has remained essentially unchanged since a pair of App Store fraud incidents in July. After the first, the company increased the frequency with which iTunes requests a credit card's security code. "But if your credit card or iTunes password is stolen and used on iTunes," adds spokesman Jason Roth, "we recommend that you contact your financial institution and inquire about canceling the card and issuing a charge-back for any unauthorized transactions. We also recommend that you change your iTunes account password immediately." Apple is otherwise only said to be working on fixing fraud problems.
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Joined: Oct 2009
Virtual VISA
I live in Portugal and here, since 2000 we have something called MBNET (mbnet.pt) a service that is linked to our banks and credit cards that allows one to generate one "virtual" valid VISA card number per operation. So, when I want to pay something I visit mbnet and generate a card number for that buy. The card is created valid for the amount I choose and for one operation. A card generated is valid for one month, used or not.
Every time I need to pay something I use this. All my accounts like Amazon, iTunes etc., have these numbers filled in. I never fill my personal data using the real VISA number. So, if a thief want to hack my accounts, be my guest, he will buy nothing.
Portugal is famous for being a pioneer in many of these services but I cannot believe that such service is not available in the US and other countries. Just a dumb is stolen in frauds like that.