Apple customers have reported widespread unauthorised purchases from their iTunes accounts, leading many to surmise the online store have been hacked.
Yesterday, a developer named Thuat Nguyen suddenly held 42 of the top 50 books in the store’s sales ranking, with what appeared to be illegitimate Vietnamese copies of bestsellers, according to Engadget. That website noted many users had recently had their accounts hacked, with the attackers using their funds to buy the newly popular books.
While the hack has come to attention as a result of the dubious climb up the iBooks charts, users have been hacked like this before, according to comments in Apple’s forums.
“There’s been a rash of these kinds of issues. I got hit a couple weeks ago and last night my wife got hit. Apple has a real problem here. I’m done giving them money on iTunes,” noted user sundog61 on 22 June.
Several other posters have reported being hacked, losing between $140 to more than $400. “I was hacked too,” said scouncil1 over the weekend. “$140 in purchases. I removed my credit card info but see the hackers still managed to download some free apps tonight. I just changed my user name and password too.”
Apple has yet to return our request for comment, although the Thuat Nguyen books seem to have disappeared from iTunes. If you see unauthorised downloads on your iTunes account, you can contact Apple Support here.
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