The Vent and Rant Thread

[Exer]

My little brother is headed off to college in a couple short weeks. This past year (2010) he got his first job, and while most of his money was going towards his college fund, he was so, so excited to be able to buy us all Christmas presents out of his "own" money. Money that he earned with his own hard work.

Unfortunately, his iTunes account was hacked. Or "compromised". Regardless of the terminology, "someone" was able to get into his account -- and because his iTunes was linked with his PayPal, and his PayPal was linked to his bank -- the hacker was able to make purchase after purchase, until all the money my brother had set aside in the bank for gifts was used up.

$500+ in charges.

It has been nearly two months now. He has been able to get some of the money back, but the majority is still tied up and being investigated by PayPal's fraud department.

You have to be pretty low to steal Christmas money from a kid. I know, my brother isn't exactly a kid anymore, but he'll always be my LITTLE brother, and when people mess with him it still pisses me off.

Bah. I have something else to rant about, but this was enough for one night.

[TheKindleWorm]

Originally Posted by Exer

Unfortunately, his iTunes account was hacked. Or "compromised". Regardless of the terminology, "someone" was able to get into his account -- and because his iTunes was linked with his PayPal, and his PayPal was linked to his bank -- the hacker was able to make purchase .

That's nasty unfortunately these people are scumbags who don't care who they steal from. I have different passwords for accounts online so my paypal password is entirely different to anything else although it could still be hacked because it can happen to anyone.

I am very surprised and saddened that Apple have not admitted some part in this and given your brother some compensation. If it were me, I would be writing them a very strongly worded letter about their iTunes software!

I'm not Apoles biggest fan right now. My original iPod died after about 14 months, my MacBook died after just 18 months my iPhone crashes constantly and don't get me started on iTunes. I'm not overly impressed anyway.

[taming]

Originally Posted by Exer

and because his iTunes was linked with his PayPal, and his PayPal was linked to his bank -- the hacker was able to make purchase after purchase

I completely isolated PayPal from other accounts, used a machine randomized password 9 characters (mix of symbols, numerals, letters, both upper and lower case) long, and my PayPal account was used by someone else for an item shipped to someone in a different country. PayPal made it good, but now I delete my credit card and add it in each time I make a purchase. As soon as the charge goes through, I delete the card again.

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by Exer

My little brother is headed off to college in a couple short weeks. This past year (2010) he got his first job, and while most of his money was going towards his college fund, he was so, so excited to be able to buy us all Christmas presents out of his "own" money. Money that he earned with his own hard work.

Unfortunately, his iTunes account was hacked. Or "compromised". Regardless of the terminology, "someone" was able to get into his account -- and because his iTunes was linked with his PayPal, and his PayPal was linked to his bank -- the hacker was able to make purchase after purchase, until all the money my brother had set aside in the bank for gifts was used up.

$500+ in charges.

It has been nearly two months now. He has been able to get some of the money back, but the majority is still tied up and being investigated by PayPal's fraud department.

You have to be pretty low to steal Christmas money from a kid. I know, my brother isn't exactly a kid anymore, but he'll always be my LITTLE brother, and when people mess with him it still pisses me off.

Bah. I have something else to rant about, but this was enough for one night.

I can understand your anger and your brother is lucky to have you care about him.
There's a lot of fraud going on with iTunes these last months. I was called by Visa the other day, who asked if I had ordered something on a certain date with iTunes. When I said no, they answered that thieves were getting in iTunesaccounts again and that they would block the transaction. It was not a huge amount, so I wonder how they knew about that fraud.
It's a known problem; I feel PayPal should have seen it like Visa did, and therefore I hope your brother will get all his money back.
Good luck.

[Exer]

Originally Posted by desertblues

It's a known problem; I feel PayPal should have seen it like Visa did, and therefore I hope your brother will get all his money back. Good luck.

Thank you. He's been pretty bummed out about the whole thing. Mostly just disappointed that his Christmas plans got so screwed up.

Originally Posted by TheKindleWorm

I am very surprised and saddened that Apple have not admitted some part in this and given your brother some compensation. If it were me, I would be writing them a very strongly worded letter about their iTunes software!

They deleted the account that was receiving all the stolen electronic goods. The "help" they offered him was to disable and permanently lock my brothers account too. I understand the reasoning, they can't have some hacker using it ... but after all he had already been through, having his own account banned was like salt in the wound.

Originally Posted by taming

... now I delete my credit card and add it in each time I make a purchase. As soon as the charge goes through, I delete the card again.

That is an interesting tactic. How does that work with bank accounts? As far as I was aware you needed to have some sort of a confirmed bank account to use paypal, unless things have changed. Would you be able to just delete and readd that as well?

[thinkpad]

Originally Posted by taming

I completely isolated PayPal from other accounts, used a machine randomized password 9 characters (mix of symbols, numerals, letters, both upper and lower case) long, and my PayPal account was used by someone else for an item shipped to someone in a different country. PayPal made it good, but now I delete my credit card and add it in each time I make a purchase. As soon as the charge goes through, I delete the card again.

A strong password is definitely recommended but it will help very little if the computer is compromised with a key-logger. If you want to get really secure you should use something like IronKey for sensitive data.

When it comes to deleting the card it's not a bad idea, but wouldn't it make it useless for shopping where the business require a confirmed PayPal address. This confirmation takes a few days to go through with PayPal.

[happy_terd]

Damn it to hell. I just woke up 20 minutes ago and sucked down two cups of coffee. I looked at my laptop time and it says 5:23.

I thought I woke up at 6AM. I went back to my bedroom and checked the alarm clock out and it is set for 1 hour ahead.

There is no going back to bed after the coffee I drank.

[astrangerhere]

I had my Itunes account hacked late last year as well. Luckily, the loser that hacked it was happy to waste the $50 in credit i had on the account and did not get to my paypal account before I caught the problem and had the account locked. Itunes was shockingly good to me over it though, even gave me my credit back.

[happy_terd]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I had my Itunes account hacked late last year as well. Luckily, the loser that hacked it was happy to waste the $50 in credit i had on the account and did not get to my paypal account before I caught the problem and had the account locked. Itunes was shockingly good to me over it though, even gave me my credit back.

Great news that Itunes gave you your credit back. I wouldnt trust them anymore though. I would remove all paypal / personal info from the account.

If outside forces hacked you once then to me that means a billion people can hack you at any time. The next time you may not get off so easy.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by happy_terd

Great news that Itunes gave you your credit back. I wouldnt trust them anymore though. I would remove all paypal / personal info from the account.

If outside forces hacked you once then to me that means a billion people can hack you at any time. The next time you may not get off so easy.

I was prepared to, as my partner puts it, pull the esquire card on them if necessary. It is one advantage to being a lawyer, you have about 10xs more intimidation power with customer service than the average user.

[happy_terd]

Maybe you should start a thread offering free legal advice. You would be up to a billion karma in a day.

[Wetdogeared]

Originally Posted by happy_terd

Damn it to hell. I just woke up 20 minutes ago and sucked down two cups of coffee. I looked at my laptop time and it says 5:23.

I thought I woke up at 6AM. I went back to my bedroom and checked the alarm clock out and it is set for 1 hour ahead.

There is no going back to bed after the coffee I drank.

I accidentally set my alarm clock when I plugged in my reader to charge last night. It went off at 6:00AM and now the whole place is wide awake and a bit pissed at me.

[happy_terd]

Are you at home, in a mental hospital, jail, YMCA, or hotel?

[Wetdogeared]

Originally Posted by happy_terd

Are you at home, in a mental hospital, jail, YMCA, or hotel?

At home, which often seems like a mental institution.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by happy_terd

Are you at home, in a mental hospital, jail, YMCA, or hotel?

For some reason this made me bust out laughing.