Thaindian News

Aug 24 (THAINDIAN NEWS) As Apple iTune customers all over the world were discovering that they had been ripped off by thousands of dollars overnight, many were shocked to discover that ‘Paypal’ had been aware of a scam in which unauthorized users have been using iTunes to wipe out Paypal accounts for over a month, and yet the customers had not been warned.

These unauthorized users have broken into the iTunes accounts of their victims, and used their Paypal accounts to charge hundreds of dollars worth of software, music and videos. Although it is very difficult for these thieves to get the credit card information of the iTunes subscribers, breaking into the Paypal account, and thus gaining access to the credit card’s finds was rather simple.

For those iTunes customers who had their accounts linked into their Paypal account, and their Paypal account linked into their credit cards or bank accounts, it was simply following the path to get to the gold, like taking candy from a baby.

Some commentators suggest that there is a “major security hole” in either iTunes or Paypal, others say it is most likely a phishing scam. No matter which is truth, hundreds of Paypal customers were very concerned after discovering that the attacks had been going on for over a month.

One Facebook user posted on Monday, “My iTunes account just got hacked and someone made about $700 worth of purchases. I contacted Paypal and they said Apple has gotten so many attacks since June, they can barely keep up with reporting them all!”

Another victim shared with TechCrunch that they had been ripped off almost 4700 dollars. Customers are wondering if Paypal is aware of the issue, why they continue to allow Paypal accounts to be linked into iTunes, and why consumers were not warned.

Although iTunes and Paypal both refuse to discuss the details of the thefts, iTunes made this suggestion, “If your credit card or iTunes password is stolen and used on iTunes we recommend that you contact your financial institution and inquire about cancelling the card and/or issuing a chargeback for any unauthorised transactions. We also recommend that you change your iTunes account password immediately.”

Paypal would not discuss the scale of the problem nor tell how many accounts had been targeted, but did promise to reimburse anyone who can prove that their accounts were broken into.

Mike McGuire, an analyst stated, “If they don’t aggressively sort this out, it can undo a lot of brand building and trust as they become this transaction hub for 150 million people’s credit cards at last count.”