Reporter Sorbonne Banerjee covers iTunes gift card scams that hit victim Kimberly Pullis with fraudulent charges. Thieves steal gift card codes and resell them, exploiting PayPal and iTunes vulnerabilities. Cybersecurity experts explain how the scheme works and who is at risk.
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With the danger of downloading now on popular digital music sites, cyber criminals are trying to cash in using your money. So these thieves use your credit cards, your information, and they buy music.
But it'll take victims more than just a few clicks to catch the criminals. The 19th Sir Bonnie Banerjee reports.
Kimberly Pullis loves music.
All kinds. Disco, '80s mostly. My husband laughs at me, love '80s music.
So when she got an iPod, she knew exactly what to do.
Signed up for iTunes, that's where you're supposed to get your music when you have an iPod.
To make her payments easily, she registered her PayPal account with iTunes.
Anytime I purchase a song or whatever, it would be taken directly from my PayPal account.
It seemed like a good idea.
You plug in, you download, you good to go.
Until one day she noticed something was not right.
I came home, checked my email as I always do, and noticed there were two $50 charges on my PayPal account and thank you notices from iTunes and purchasing these two gift cards.
Kimberly says she never bought any iTunes gift cards.
If my iTunes account was hacked for $100, I can't imagine how many thousands and thousands of dollars have been ripped off.
And she found out she was not alone. A simple search online turns up dozens and dozens of complaints from people saying the same thing: fraudulent charges on PayPal, bank accounts, accounts or credit cards, all directly linked to their iTunes account. We want to be clear that iTunes is doing nothing wrong here. Any website is vulnerable to this kind of attack, but because iTunes is so popular, cybercriminals know that there's almost a limitless number of accounts to target. Cybersecurity experts explain this kind of fraud is gaining popularity because gift cards can't be traced. And any website that allows people to set up a direct payment plan is vulnerable. But because so many people use iTunes, it's a prime site for thieves.
Hackers have caught on and there is a good market for those credit— uh, for those gift cards.
Here's how the scheme works. When you buy a gift card online, you receive a code to redeem the value. Cyber thieves then sell these codes online at discounts and pocket the money while you get the bill.
A $100 gift card that is stolen from your account that is resold for $25 is pure profit to the criminal.
When we contacted Apple, they wouldn't talk They didn't talk about the alleged fraudulent charges on iTunes accounts, but they suggested that if you're a victim of credit card fraud or you're concerned about your online security, it's a good idea to change your iTunes password. Another way to try to protect yourself: don't store your payment information as part of your online accounts. Only supply the information when you're making a purchase. That's a lesson Kimberly learned the hard way. Sorbonne Banerjee, 7 News.
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