Okay Geek Farm
What to do when your iTunes account is hacked
Brandon Davenport
Ever since Apple’s app store and iTunes as a whole was hacked Sunday afternoon, people have gotten antsy about protecting their accounts from being hijacked, and forced to purchase apps - among other malicious activities. In this case, people were having their accounts hijacked by a rouge developer by the name of Thuat Nguyen, and force their accounts to randomly purchase that developer’s apps - thus bringing them to the top of the charts. Want to avoid this? We figured you would…
How to know if you have been hacked:
Check your iTunes account for previous purchases. If you see anything you haven’t willingly purchased, you are probably being taken advantage of. This is probably because someone has a hold of your password, or gotten access to your account in some way.
What to do once you are certain you have been hacked:
- Immediately contact Apple Support and your bank to try and stop any further purchases from passing through.
- Another way to contact Apple is by phoning them - 800-275-2273 - and press 0 at each prompt (ignoring messages) to speak to a human immediately - via gethuman.com
- If you can access your account, change your password and remove your iTunes card details completely. Try using iTunes gift cards to purchase apps and music instead (this is much easier to control).
…and finally
An optional step (but still important) is spread the word and let people know whats up. This could be a Tweet, a quick warning to friends on Facebook or an email to your favorite blog or news source to start a story. This sounds a bit dumb, but its nice to help others out, and allow them to prepare before the same happens to them. If you have any other useful ideas, let others know in the comments below!
