Jul 31st, 2010
General
Dwayne
Jul 24th, 2010
General
Dwayne
Jul 17th, 2010
General
Dwayne
On July 2, 2010, my iTunes account was hacked into and I was charged for a total of $100.99. After receiving several email confirmations stating I purchased these items (an iPhone app and two $50 gift certificates), I began to investigate the causes and possible preventions to this type of situation.
As it turns out, this is a common occurrence and people have been taken for thousands of dollars. With this information, I called my credit card company to deactivate my account, changed my iTunes password and removed the credit card information from my iTunes account.
In order to process the fraudulent use of my credit card, my credit union required me to submit a police report, of which I did. This was followed by having a notarized copy of my request to dispute the charges that needed to be investigated. This was certainly a first and hopefully the last.
Once I mailed the necessary documents (certified return receipt), it was time to wait for my credit union’s response. This morning (July 13th), I happened to check my account balance and found that the fraudulent charges have been reversed! Good news!
The process went rather smoothly and I’m glad about that. However, based on the regular occurrence of these episodes worldwide, I’ve decided to discontinue my use of iTunes to purchase my media. There are many alternatives out there and I’m very happy with Amazon’s music store so far. If, for some reason, I do need to purchase something from iTunes, I will use a gift card instead of my credit card (a small inconvenience, but safer option).
In addition, I’ve reevaluated all of my online bill paying accounts and have changed a few for added security. I suggest everyone do this frequently, especially passwords. With the growing popularity of online financial transactions, there are exploits out there that can be taken advantage of.
The Internet should be safe, but as in life, it isn’t. Be safe online and I hope this doesn’t happen to you.
Dwayne
Jul 13th, 2010
General
Dwayne
Jul 10th, 2010
General
Dwayne