Apple Singapore looks at fraudulent iTunes charges, dozens of reported cases

SINGAPORE: Dozens of Apple customers have had hundreds of dollars withdrawn from their bank accounts after being billed for purchases they had not made on their iTunes accounts.

The Victims With whom Channel NewsAsia Spoke

Advertisement

Two people told Channel NewsAsia that they have lost at least $ 7,000 worth of Singapore dollars for purchases made by iTunes, one of them they said that she had been billed on her HSBC credit card. She added that she had only realized that something was wrong when she received an SMS from HSBC stating that she had less than 30% of her credit limit. She realized the magnitude of the issue after talking to a customer service operator.

At OCBC only, there were 58 cases of fraudulent transactions in July, the bank told Channel NewsAsia. detected and examined unusual transactions on 58 cardholder accounts. After confirming that it was fraudulent transactions, we have deployed the necessary countermeasures and are currently assisting the cardholders involved in the debit process, "said Vincent Tan, head of credit cards at OCBC Bank

and UOB for inquiring into the number of cases they received

AMOUNT OF EACH UNAUTHORIZED TRANSACTION WAS $ 112.03

One of the victims is 28-year-old Deepan Chakkaravarthi, who discovered last week that nearly $ 700 had been drained from her account at DBS

Shocked that his "account balance had been completely cleared", Mr. Deepan called DBS and was informed that six iTunes transactions had been made

He did not allow any of these six iTunes transactions, said Mr. Deepan at Channel NewsAsia

hats – each for $ 112.03 – were made by another iCloud account holder, who had used his account, Mr. Deepan added.

"A senior advisor with whom I spoke (at Apple Singapore) told me this information.But they have since suspended this account," said Deepan.

Apple Singapore has since canceled purchases and DBS has granted it temporary credit for disputed transactions, Deepan said. Apple Singapore told Channel NewsAsia that she was studying the issue.

The company has also put forward its support page, which allows customers to report any problems with purchases made on iTunes.

"They will have to connect Apple 1965 said that the engineer Myo Aung Tun, 44, also had unauthorized iTunes transactions of $ 112.03 S $ deducted from his POSB savings account using his Apple ID, and then be able to see the purchases and evaluate the truthfulness before reporting the problem.July 14

The total accumulated fees amounted to almost $ 450. money had been returned to him on July 19.

"I called the bank and they gave me instructions to change for a new card," he said.

LOADS ON TELEPHONE PROJECTS TOO

Gabriel Lim, who was charged S $ 200 earlier this year for purchases of iTunes than he did not, received the fees on his mobile phone bill.

Several "iTunes orders" were charged to his bill M1 phone between April and May, said Lim. He then contacted Apple Singapore to cancel the transactions. Another batch of "iTunes orders" was billed again in June and July.