Massive hacking of iTunes accounts happening right now!

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

Here's info from another tech site:

"What used to be a sole developer hacking iTunes accounts has now sprung into 2 or more developer slash hackers. Thuat Nguyen began hacking accounts to buy his apps numerous times as evidenced by the image above.

Reports are coming in that fraud charges amount anywhere from $100 to above $600. Note that this isn’t AppStore country centralized as users from outside the US are also reporting the incident.

How To Protect Your Account

1.Login to iTunes
2.Change your password to alphanumeric and preferably something above 10 characters
3.Go to My Account > Edit Payment Information
4.Set payment option to NONE

If You’ve Been Hacked Already

1.Email support@iTunes.com
2.Try and recover your password: http://iForgot.Apple.com

I suggest you do the following steps immediately as if you wait around, fireworks aren’t the only ones lighting up tonight."


I personally don't use Apple products, so I can't verify the soundness of his recommendations. I'm hearing that Bank of America and Wells Fargo are reporting the fraud so far.

There's a couple of UK users popping up saying they've been hit (and rumours of more) on Twitter.

[HarryT]

Probably as well to set your payment method to "None" until the truth of all this emerges. I've just done so.

[Dellaster]

I suspect that anything done on our part now is like closing the barn door after the horses have bolted. Hopefully nobody among us at MobileRead was hit. Crossing my fingers for everyone.

- Ted

[vaughnmr]

I can't believe we don't hear anything from Apple. Can anyone out there sneak into the "walled garden" and see what's happening? Since I don't have an Apple product, I'm forbidden from even going into the iBooks store or app store, whatever it is. I would love to see what's going on in there, may be a massacre. Last I hear the rogue developer had the top 42 of 50 apps to his name... buying it with other people's money!

[kjk]

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

I can't believe we don't hear anything from Apple. Can anyone out there sneak into the "walled garden" and see what's happening? Since I don't have an Apple product, I'm forbidden from even going into the iBooks store or app store, whatever it is. I would love to see what's going on in there, may be a massacre. Last I hear the rogue developer had the top 42 of 50 apps to his name... buying it with other people's money!

If you don't have any apple products, I'm guessing you don't need to worry what is going on behind the walled garden.
It is a holiday weekend here, so I'm sure the lines of communication are not as clear as they would be during the week.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

I can't believe we don't hear anything from Apple. Can anyone out there sneak into the "walled garden" and see what's happening? Since I don't have an Apple product, I'm forbidden from even going into the iBooks store or app store, whatever it is. I would love to see what's going on in there, may be a massacre. Last I hear the rogue developer had the top 42 of 50 apps to his name... buying it with other people's money!

Apple are notoriously secretive, to a fault some would say. Take the reception issues on the iPhone 4 of late. It took them weeks to admit the fault, and that was after weeks of giving nonsensical and arrogant advice to paying customers. I'd expect nothing but denial to begin with, then they'll try to shift the blame away from the company, then after weeks of complaints, they'll finally admit to what happened.

Interesting times if you buy Apple products.

[vaughnmr]

Originally Posted by kjk

If you don't have any apple products, I'm guessing you don't need to worry what is going on behind the walled garden.

I love it. This is what I would call arrogance at it's best. Massive fraud worldwide, but let's contain it, no news is good news. It's like the antenna issue...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Take the reception issues on the iPhone 4 of late. It took them weeks to admit the fault, and that was after weeks of giving nonsensical and arrogant advice to paying customers.

The iPhone 4 has only been on the market for 10 days; I'm not sure where this "weeks of this and weeks of that" thing is coming from. Perhaps a slight exaggeration .

[Dellaster]

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

I can't believe we don't hear anything from Apple. Can anyone out there sneak into the "walled garden" and see what's happening? Since I don't have an Apple product, I'm forbidden from even going into the iBooks store or app store, whatever it is. I would love to see what's going on in there, may be a massacre. Last I hear the rogue developer had the top 42 of 50 apps to his name... buying it with other people's money!

Just checked. Nothing looks out of place on the top 50 iPad non-free apps list, nor the top 20 iPhone paid list. The free lists look okay too. All I checked looked like they earned their place, with many reviews (not repeated fake reviews) to go along with the download counts.

So I have to guess that if the reports are true Apple already dealt with that part of the problem and removed those offending apps from the list. No doubt we'll get the whole story in due time.

- Ted

Edit: I did check the iBooks list as well. Looked fine.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The iPhone 4 has only been on the market for 10 days; I'm not sure where this "weeks of this and weeks of that" thing is coming from .

I bet ten days feels like weeks to those who had to hold their phones as though they were handling delicate china teacups in a Merchant Ivory film.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Dellaster

Just checked. Nothing looks out of place on the top 50 iPad non-free apps list, nor the top 20 iPhone paid list. The free lists look okay too. All I checked looked like they earned their place, with many reviews (not repeated fake reviews) to go along with the download counts.

So I have to guess that if the reports are true Apple already dealt with that part of the problem and removed those offending apps from the list. No doubt we'll get the whole story in due time.

- Ted

Edit: I did check the iBooks list as well. Looked fine.

I've just checked the UK App Store and iBook Store. All looks entirely normal, with the "Charts" pages looking just as you'd expect. Top 5 pay apps are "PAC Man", "Angry Birds", "Pages", "Pinball", and "Emerald Observatory", and that's pretty much the same list I remember seeing a week ago.

[vaughnmr]

So how does one change the title under your username. I noticed mine was changed to "Groupie" after I started this thread today. Not sure if I like that. I guess mods are Apple users???

An ebook "Groupie"??? Where did you come up with that one, I wonder...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I bet ten days feels like weeks to those who had to hold their phones as though they were handling delicate china teacups in a Merchant Ivory film.

To be perfectly honest with you, Moejoe, I think the whole thing's been blown out of all proportion. I have an iPhone 4 and yes, if you hold it in a "death grip" it does lose the signal, but a £2.99 case from eBay has completely solved the problem. Anyone who carries around a phone like that without a protective case needs their head examining, if you ask me .

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

So how does one change the title under your username. I noticed mine was changed to "Groupie" after I started this thread today. Not sure if I like that. I guess mods are Apple users???

An ebook "Groupie"??? Where did you come up with that one, I wonder...

USER CP > Edit Your Details

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

To be perfectly honest with you, Moejoe, I think the whole thing's been blown out of all proportion. I have an iPhone 4 and yes, if you hold it in a "death grip" it does lose the signal, but a £2.99 case from eBay has completely solved the problem. Anyone who carries around a phone like that without a protective case needs their head examining, if you ask me .

I wouldn't know a thing about it. My last fully functioning Apple product died over a year ago now (an iPod) and I'm loathe to buy anything from them ever again. Snow Leopard wasn't even lipstick on a pig, it was eye-shadow on a kitten, and their increasingly paranoid restrictions are in opposition to everything I believe and hold dear about technology being for all instead of the few. They're about the dullest tech company on earth in my eyes, with very little excitement in their product-lines and beyond my meagre budget at all times.

Now Android and Ubuntu....there's some excitement.

Damn, this turned into a rant.

EDIT: And personally, I can't stand mobile phones in any shape colour or form, even the Android ones (it's the OS that excites me about them). I only have a very basic mobile phone now for emergencies and other essential communication, and it doesn't do much more than that - make and receive calls. Most of the time I forget to charge the damn thing.