App Store chicanery powered by iTunes account fraud

Two other companies that appear to be using unethical and/or illegal methods to game the iTunes Store ranking system are:

- Flytomap
- Egate (Egate IT Solutions Pvt Ltd)

For the past several months, it seems that every day to two, one or more of these companies' numerous, cookie-cutter apps just suddenly 'appears' in the top 20 (or even top 10!) of the Travel section in the U.S. Store. This should be impossible, with no Apple or major media featuring and often no ratings or reviews whatsoever.

I hope Apple seriously looks into this and all other examples of gaming the ranking system.

I didnt have my itunes accout hacked but i did have my credit card hacked, it showed on my credit history about 6 $40 itunes purchases that i couldnt find in my itunes purchase history. My credit card company fixed it no problem.

My mom also had it happen to her and they got about $1,300 of purchases before she caught it.

I was hijacked by this exact "seller"...Thuat Nguyen. Made four charges of over $40 in a matter of minutes. I had suspected my password got snagged when I downloaded a free app, but I am still not sure. My bank was able to rectify the situation but I'm still pretty angry with Apple for letting this slide.

i had my account hacked this weekend. $100 in charges for apps. already contacted apple and the bank is next. just what i needed.

This kind of thing is a prime example of why you should do everything you can to protect yourself online. What I do to mitigate issues such as this is that all of my purchases from Amazon, iTunes, etc are all linked to a debit card that has no more than $100 in the account at a time (unless I need to purchase something more expensive at which time I will move $ to the account). This keeps me from getting dinged for a large amount of $ while keeping my main accounts safe. My account might get hacked, but they won't get much for their efforts as I think the debit card I mentioned has about $35 in the account right now.

i just checked the affected section and either Apple has shut down what was going on or the 'top' list is a shifting one and it was a momentarily glitch that has now been wiped out by 4th of July celebrants or whatever.

which makes me wonder if this was a case of faked accounts and not hacked ones. This guy and some friends could have created a big of bogus accounts using gmail emails etc and some stolen gift cards and did a massive buy of all his stuff to pad his sales figures. ANd perhaps even pad in some fake reviews

I've had occasion to use the feedback links in my receipt mails to complain about iTunes Store purchases to Apple on a couple of occasions. I was given a credit with no argument both times. If you have a problem with a purchase, you should do the same — just don't say the issue is a software bug, or you'll be referred to the developer rather than getting immediate credit.

I had my iTunes account hijacked. Over $100 Dollars in charges were on my bank account. I managed to get it fixed right away but it still worries Me.

I have been trying to draw attention to the Apple ID hijacking issue for over a year. Mine was hijacked back in June of 2009. I documented the problem on my blog in two posts. Even back then Apple said they were "looking into it" but people's accounts are still regularly hijacked.

My Apple ID was hijacked after trying to join the Apple Developers Connection. Within hours of joining, I found myself locked out of my iTunes account.

The issue isn't really iTune fraud, that's only a "symptom" of the real issue. Apple's method of changing a password is too easy. Security questions, can be all too easily figured out in this day of blogs and social media. Apple needs to go back to eMailing the registered eMail account with a link back to a page to change usernames & or passwords.

I was not the first and certainly won't be the last.

The entire story can be read in these two posts.

http://go2jo.us/c7pJOZ

http://go2jo.us/b1twSJ