APL*ITUNES 866-712-7753 on your bank statement? YOU HAVE BEEN SCAMMED.

[Update 17Jan2018] - Wow. To think that 8 years later, this scam is still going on as I'm still getting the odd notifications every now and then with comments on this post. TLDR: If you guys stumble upon this random site because of the APL*ITUNES 866-71-2-7753 charge on your credit/debit card, call your bank immediately and report it as a fraud. 

If you have an iTunes account and have any bank cards associated with it, you might wanna beware. I normally check my bank accounts every now and then just to be sure that there's nothing fishy going on in there and of course at the same time, just like many of you *secretly* hoping that someone might accidentally transfer $1 million to my account as well. I've had a few cases of credit card frauds happening and so far, banks have been very cooperative with disputing transactions and issuing me a new card (especially my local bank, SCB Brunei. Well done!).

So today, i checked one of my overseas bank account and found out that i've been charged over USD $200 for some random iTunes purchases. Initially, i thought maybe iTunes have accidentally charged me for some of the stuffs i've been downloading but upon cross referencing with my iTunes receipt, there are discrepancies with the dates and the amount because they're all...free. Well, i am Asian by blood so i don't really like to spend money of something that intangible. That's like throwing away money for me. :P

My most recent iTunes "purchases"

I don't think i will spend $10 on a CD that i personally cannot feel/touch unless the music industry decided to go completely digital. My first reaction upon seeing my bank records was to report this immediately to the bank but due to time differences, i have to wait till 9 am local time to get in touch with a representative. Meanwhile, what i did next was to...well, google. After reading a few articles posted online, it seems that there have been numerous reports of the same fraud cases that i'm currently facing. Some were even more unlucky where they've been charged over $1000! And of course, there's heated argument on who's side is to be blamed. If you read more on the comments, majority of them are pointing fingers at Apple cause they are not taking any responsibilities about it. As much as i want to hop in the anti-Apple bandwagon, it is hard to put the blame on them because this logically speaking, it has nothing to do with them...at least in my case.

Something's shady going on around here...

If in the event that my iTunes account have been hacked and there has been stuffs downloaded, then sure i'll blame Apple for this. Since my account preferred method of payment is linked to Paypal, i've also checked my Paypal account to check if there has been any transactions made through it and fortunately, there wasn't. So this pretty much leads back to only one way of how this can be done. The fraudster somehow got my credit card details. This of course is unavoidable especially when almost everything now has to be done online so chances are he might have picked up my card details and possibly yours online especially if you enjoy doing e-shopping. I did however, discover one thing about Apple in the midst of all this little 'investigation'. For a company that is really known worldwide, it is relatively confusing to find any link to report this matter or even a direct number specifically for this issue. Majority of the links and numbers are either for Apple technical issues, software helps, warranty stuffs but nothing on frauds or customer service.

This pretty much triggered all the anger for some of Apple unhappy customers whose iTunes unfortunately have been hacked. Majority of them complained that Apple are not giving much crap about them and asked them to sort it out with their banks or with Paypal. I personally think Apple should increase security measure with their iTunes especially when cases like these can't exactly be tracked. For now, i just gotta wait till i speak with my bank to see what can be done to resolve. If they reject my claim to dispute the transaction then...i might try my luck in email good ol' Stevey!

"We're not perfect."

Hmm...maybe if those who are affected by this start some petition and file complaints to him, his next conference he might just open up with another smart quote...

Mehehehe...

But on a serious note, i do advise if you guys have credit card, try not to save any information online. If you use iTunes as well, set the payment method to none. It may be tedious whenever you want to make a purchase but hey, it's definitely so much more tedious going through the process of filing a dispute claim and dealing with all the banking procedures.