An unknown number of Apple IDs have apparently been hacked this week, and are being used to buy hundreds of dollars worth of apps in the App Store. It’s not yet clear whether the problem is widespread. An initial report by blogger Alex Brie highlighted the fact that 40 of the top 50 iPhone apps in the Books category were created by Vietnamese developer “Thuat Nguyen”. A hack of the App Store rankings by a single developer was suspected. However, Brie later added that numerous Vietnamese book apps were doing suspiciously well in the rankings — Apple responded to the blogger that the issue is being looked into. Hack Reports on Twitter, App Store Reviews and MacForums Further reporting revealed more problems: Twitter complaints and a MacForums thread spotted by The Next Web show that a number of iTunes users have had their accounts compromised and used to buy hundreds of dollars of apps. In particular, reviewers of the Vietnamese book apps claim in the app’s reviews section that they never downloaded the apps, and instead had their accounts compromised. A few complaints from the MacForums thread: Yesterday my credit union contacted me saying there was suspicious activity on my debit card. Sure enough over 10 transactions in the $40-$50 area all on iTunes equaling to $558. This is definitely a problem, since then I’ve e-mailed MSNBC hoping they’ll pick up the story and investigate this problem. — srslylia A small $1.00-$3.00 charge, then random navigation apps totalling around $190.00. Cancelled the card and now working with credit union to get the charges removed. I will never use my debit card with Itunes again. –tofublock I also received a receipt via email on my “Purchases” on 7/2/10. I made the mistake of storing my debit card on the itunes store app. I have run into the exact same responses that other users are reporting–only email as a method of contact. Read more:http://mashable.com/2010/07/04/itunes-accounts-hacked/
