Apple is currently dealing with the public fallout from the discovery that someone had hacked iTunes accounts to fake purchases for 41 of his comic apps in the bookstore – comic apps that were, themselves, stolen intellectual property. The trail began with the discovery this weekend that 41 out of Apple’s top 50 book apps belonged to developer Thuat Nguyen, who may have earned more than $1million before being caught, due to fake purchases in the style described here. Nguyen has since been banned by Apple – who have pointed out that only 400 out of 150 million users seem to have been affected by this recent case – but this article from the Wall Street Journal suggests that this is nowhere near a one-time problem, mentioning two cases where over $1000 of fraudulent charges were made without Apple’s knowledge and only caught when the customers’ banks called to confirm irregular purchases (TheNextWeb lists some other potential culprits).
Worryingly, Apple seems very disconnected from the issue, with spokesperson Trudy Muller recommending that customers contact their financial institutions for chargeback and change their passwords if worried about being victim to potential hacks and false purchases. [Via]
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