Hacktivists are quite popular these days, especially with Anonymous taking down government sites to fight corruption and injustice.  But the problem is, other hackers are wreaking havoc in cyberspace.  They’re hacking into user accounts and stealing money – hard earned money that’s supposed to go to their family.

In February, news came out that iTunes and PayPal accounts were hacked, the money used to make in-app purchases.  The hacks drained the accounts of users. and purchases were made, draining the consumers of their hard earned money.

Those who noticed that their accounts have been hacked reported the matter to Apple immediately.  Unfortunately, iTunes doesn’t have an over-the-phone customer support line, so you file your concern via e-mail and wait for them to respond to you.  And that could take days, or even weeks.

When the issue came to light, Apple Insider was quick to ask Apple for a statement regarding the incident, and the company sent a seemingly automated reply.

“Apple takes precautions to safeguard your personal information against loss, theft and misuse, as well as against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. Apple online services such as the Apple Online Store and iTunes Store use Secure Sockets Layer encryption on all web pages where personal information is collected,” the company said.

Problem Solved?

Some users who had their iTunes account hacked experienced a quick fix: accounts were disabled to prevent further loss of funds, funds taken were returned.  But Apple did not admit that there was something wrong with their system.  And Apple’s refusal to acknowledge that there is a problem in their system is what concerns subscribers the most.

“Owners of compromised accounts are concerned that Apple is trying to sweep the issue under the rug by claiming each attack is isolated and some believe there may in fact be a much larger problem than Apple will own up to,” said a post from TONEDEAF.

“Other users are concerned about their personal data after it was discovered things like addresses were changed in their accounts by the hackers.”

Persistent Problem

Though some users were refunded, some suffered a greater loss than just a few bucks– some lost their means of providing for their family.

Case 1: Software developer Bryan Lunduke had his software taken out of the Mac App Store because there was a technical glitch in Apple’s system.  The cruel part is, after three days of waiting for Apple’s response as to what happened, Apple admitted that there is in fact an internal software problem, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Lunduke lost half a month’s salary because of the glitch, so he’s now asking for donations in order to support his family.  Lunduke is offering a free copy of his video game (2299 : THE GAME), visual app development tool (Illumination Software Creator), and the first two issues of his comic book (Road-Sign Hank) to anyone generous enough to donate some money.

Upon publishing the post, Apple contacted Lunduke and informed him that they are now working on “temporarily” putting his software back in the Mac App Store.

“It’s not a permanent fix, and they’re not doing anything about the income they lost me.  And no word on when I’ll see the money they do owe me (other than it’ll be much later)… but at least they contacted me.  I’ll keep everyone updated as things unfold,” Lunduke stated on his post.

Case 2: Writer/blogger Matt Ryan also had a headache-inducing experience with not only Apple, but PayPal and Wells Fargo too.  It all started when he received a flood of e-mails from both iTunes and PayPal notifying him of his purchases ,which amounted to roughly $470 by the time he was able to change his iTunes password.  Half of the purchases was covered by PayPal, and when the unauthorized purchases depleted his PayPal funds, it tapped into his bank funds from Wells Fargo.

Ryan immediately contacted iTunes through their online support and awaited for their reply.  He then contacted PayPal and Wells Fargo to file that those transactions were fraudulent and he did not authorize any of them.

He then contacted the Mac support line, since they actually have an over-the-phone support line, and they were quick to help him with his dilemma.  Three days later his funds were returned by PayPal, but Wells Fargo hasn’t, since they need to file a claim with PayPal.  Ryan though everything was being resolved, but his dilemma was far from over.

Over the following months, he had to iron out his PayPal and iTunes account multiple times just so he could use it.  But the final straw was when his iTunes account was disabled by Apple and if he chose to reactivate his account, iTunes could freeze it again, but he’ll never regain access under any circumstances.  If Ryan chose to reactivate his account, he risks “losing access to all his software purchases, licenses, and OS X Lion” and would have to buy “Mac OS X Lion again, Final Cut Pro, Compressor, hundreds of dollars in iOS apps, and hundreds more in Mac software.”

And just like Lunduke, after Ryan made his dissatisfaction public, Apple was quick to contact him saying that “the post in question had brought the situation to their attention, and that the repeated disabling was an automatic result of PayPal having submitted the reports multiple times.”

The Apple representative that contacted him clarified that “in the event that the policy regarding three account deactivations and permanent loss of purchases is intended to combat abusers of the chargeback system and that if anyone does get denied access to their account for filing legitimate claims, they are able to protest the ban via iTunes support. There was an acknowledgement of the fact that iTunes has no phone service, and while the online submission system may appear cold and automated, there are hundreds of support reps reading each and every message as it comes in.”

Moral of the Story

Did you see the similarity in the two cases presented?  When they publicized what happened to them, Apple was quick to put out the flame.  So if anyone experienced the same things as the guys mentioned above, post it in a blog or inform the media about it.  Seems like Apple is so intent in maintaining their reputation that they do not want anyone publicly declaring their disappointment with the Apple brand. Customer service certainly goes a long way.