Consumer Agency Investigating iTunes Complaints

[Mulboyne]

The new Consumer Agency is investigating around 100 complaints by users of Apple's iTunes store that they have been hit with charges for items bought on the store by someone else. Rather than a major security breach, this appears to be an issue of password protection where users have remained logged on to iTunes on a platform used by others or else, somehow, another person has used their ID and password. Anyone logging in to an account can make purchases which will be charged to the credit card registered with the Apple store. The cases under investigation have involved tens of thousands of yen with one seeing charges of around 400,000 yen. Apple defends it service, pointing out that it has several warnings about password protection. The company also says the number of cases brought up is insignificant given the scale of its business so there is no indication that the problem is widespread. There have been similar complaints in the United States. The Consumer Agency is looking at measures to advise users on the importance of password protections as well as encouraging them to check their credit card statements.

Source: Asahi (Japanese)

[Mulboyne]

AFP: Japan probes Apple's iTunes over bogus credit bills

...The agency official said that in one case "a woman who registered her ID and credit card number on the music download site several years ago but hadn't used it in recent years received bills of purchases that she wasn't aware of". "The amount of money she was charged over several bills totalled more than 100,000 yen (1,100 dollars)," he said. Japan's industry and communications ministries have joined the investigation and are looking into whether personal data has been stolen. They have advised customers to carefully check their bills and report any suspicious orders...