iTunes Hacked, Linked PayPal Accounts Drained In Ongoing Problem

I've been rather surprised to learn that fraudulent purchases on iTunes accounts have been an ongoing problem for over a year and that some linked PayPal accounts have been drained in the process. This is bad news for Apple, who don't seem to be responding effectively, and even worse news for iTunes users from music sellers to fans.

Scott Hanselman's recent ComputerZen post on iTunes account hacking was the first I'd heard of a problem that began showing up on Apple Support Communities in late 2010 and continues to this day. The Next Web has related accounts involving rogue apps that were revealed as far back as July 2010.

From a TechCrunch post on August 23, 2010:

read the rest...

Smart people will avoid paypal and iTunes like the plague...

Hacker uses PayPal to access bank account

Story Created: Jul 29, 2011 at 8:14 PM

(full video report at link)

NAPLES, Fla. - A woman has her PayPal account hacked by a thief that takes hundreds from her bank account.

The woman said the suspect transferred $730 from her band account into a Bank of America account by using PayPal accounts and depositing the funds.

The Victim says the transfers happened this week when the suspet transferred $300, $300, and $130.

PayPal flagged the account when they discovered an attempt to transfer $10,000 from the victim's account.

Local tech experts say sites that save your bank account information make consumers a higher risk of similar crimes.

"unless you check your accounts daily and multiple times during the day to check the transactions - somebody can sneak in and try and steal your money," said Neil Wexell, a computer technician at The Byte Shop in Naples.

( ^ emphasis added)

I don't bother looking for hijacked accounts much these days unless someone sends me tips, but they are still ongoing same as they always were.

Perhaps not so much now that there are easier ways for the money scammers to achieve their goals.... such as purchasing fake ebay and paypal accounts, or taking advantage of Paypal's flawed password recovery procedure to take over accounts.. Oh! And now just keeping an eye on AntiSec leaks...

But I digress.... Notice the pink highlighted portion? At $39.95, that keyfob is NOT a bargain! Believe me. It's hacked and cracked. It has been. Chances are that whatever 'credit card' sized replacement they've made for it is vulnerable too. rotflololol

What kind of scam is this?

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I made a video quite some time ago pointing out a few things regarding the keyfob.

At this time I'll let on to the rest of the story...

Happy reading.

"If seven maids with seven mops swept IT for a half a year,
 Do you suppose", the walrus said, "that they could get IT clear?"
"I doubt it", said the carpenter, and shed a bitter tear.

A couple thread topics at the shill infested ebay forums show that paypal/ebay seems to have had more leaks. Phishing emails which are addressed to the person's real name, along with ambiguous replies from PayPal's crack security or customer service crew.

E-mail from PayPal - Real?

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You may notice the commenter above states he also received them despite NOT having a PP account. That's because ebay and Paypal are connected together, regardless of what they may claim. That simple fact has been demonstrated more than once

Is the "Update Your Browser" Email from PayPal Legit?

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Sega Game Linked to Theft From iTunes Accounts

Another wrinkle in the story...

^ itunes/paypal account hacking still out of control. Smart people will stay miles away from either service, as neither on will admit any accountability, or even address the issues, other than staunch denials.

eBay briefly levies $420,968 in fees and more Signet Financial complaints

Published: Saturday, April 16, 2011, 7:30 AM

On Friday, Dale LaFollette watched the monthly bill for his eBay store drop from $420,968 to $1,000.

That's a good Friday.

The West Linn man's bill had skyrocketed earlier this month after his eBay account got hijacked.

Unfortunately, that's become quite common for many folks who've watched their e-mail inboxes fill up with offers from retailers and other, much less desirable sources. Or from concerned friends and family in the case of the scam in which fraudsters try to milk folks on email contact lists for cash with stories of Help me I'm sick and stranded in another country.

As The Desk has noted before, it's a good idea to change your user name and passwords often and keep them complicated -- patterns of letters, numbers and symbols, when possible, to keep hackers guessing.

In LaFollette's case, someone had acquired his user name and password, logged on to his eBay store and listed several Apple iPads, iPhones and some soccer tickets to Wembley Stadium in North London for sale. That's annoying enough, especially people started buying.

LaFollette, a high-rated seller who typically peddles vintage auto racing memorabilia, got nervous as the money started coming into his PayPal account. He tried to warn buyers, but shoppers weren't reading the full descriptions of items and were clicking "Buy it Now." He called eBay and company reps said they'd help and promised to call back within two hours.

By hour three, LaFollette decided to take action. He changed the price of one of the last remaining iPads from $500 to $50 million.

"But eBay kicked that back and told me the maximum that something could be listed was $21 million," he said, "so I thought, 'OK, $21 million it is.'"

Then, to his horror the item clicked over to "sold."

Looking back, LaFollette figures that the buyer -- some equally horrified soul in Kokomo, Ind. -- must have been looking at the screen before LaFollette changed the price. Without refreshing his computer screen, the shoppers must have then clicked "buy," only to see the total sale pop up as $21 million after the fact.

EBay eventually followed up and issued refunds to all the buyers, but as of Thursday, La Follette's account still listed the $420,968 in fees that eBay would normally assess to a seller with a $21 million transaction.

"The only victim here is me and I am afraid," he wrote in an e-mail to The Desk, "I am very afraid!"

Luckily, as LaFollette checked his account on Friday, eBay had readjusted the total and he was back to a more typical -- and more palatable -- amount.

...continues...

Anyone who can do that can probly find out the ebay/paypal paid trolls and stalkers real names, addresses, personal details too I bet.

Now that would be funny.

Pay Pal Security and customer service in Question

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Gawker hack triggers password resets at major sites

Yahoo, Twitter and LinkedIn have asked users to change their details, days after gossip site Gawker was hacked.

continues...

With all that's been happening, looks like someone will need to be updating their article;

New title: The 808 (million) faces of a hacker.

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And can't let this one go by without a mention... peterstorm10000 Hilarious hacking victim username! roflololololololol

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There are still more... ebaY is powerless to stop these listings from getting in and showing up right away. All they can do is play clean-up after the fact.  Legit sellers could not possibly list those items with the same results, yet the hackers have zero trouble.

Clearly there are bigger problems than just 'phishing'. The site is Hacked, or they have insider's help!

Another Hackers Laptop, Cell Phones Searched at Border

PayPal, Apple Servers Not Compromised in iTunes Hacks