Hacked iTunes accounts online in China

[Daniel]

About 50,000 illegal accounts are being sold at taobao.com, China's largest online store, at prices ranging from 1 yuan to 200 yuan.

For merely 200 yuan ($30) a pop, an Internet user in China can purchase up to $200 worth of digital products at Apple Inc's vast music, movie and applications vault.

Far from being a benevolent offer by the fruit-favoring giant, this offer is the result of the theft of iTunes user account details stollen by hackers who then auctioned them online.

The Global Times discovered Wednesday that about 50,000 illegal accounts are being sold at taobao.com, China's largest online store, at prices ranging from 1 yuan to 200 yuan.

Potential buyers are promised access to music and movies through iTunes amounting to seven times more than the amount paid.

The only restriction is that all downloads should be made within 24 hours of the transaction being completed at Taobao.

The websites show that thousands of such accounts have been sold over the past several months.

"Of course these accounts are hacked, otherwise how could they be so cheap?" a customer service representative of one of the online stores admitted to the Global Times.

He assured that the hacked accounts were safe to use due to the legitimate holders being located abroad, but he warned that the accounts needed to be used as quickly as possible. He refused to comment on the methods used to obtain the accounts.

A Global Times reporter wired $5 to a seller through Taobao's online payment system, who then provided a username and password to iTunes.

Upon accessing the account, the credit card details of a user appeared in the payment information section with a billing address in the US.

Xu Yuanzhi, a Chongqing-based IT expert who has been following the case, told the Global Times that hackers either directly hack iTunes accounts owned by foreign users or steal the details of overseas credit cards, which are then used to register several iTunes accounts for purchases.

"A 24-hour limit is out of concern that the legitimate user will discover his account being violated and cancel his card within this period," Xu said.

Apple's iTunes has become the world's biggest music retailer, with revenue at $1.3 billion in the quarter ended March 27, according to official figures.


http://***.**/sLw0S

Daniel Reviewed by Daniel on 6th Jan 2011. Hacked iTunes accounts online in China http://imgcrave.com/upload/2011/Jan/06/1cae8b3c16.jpg About 50,000 illegal accounts are being sold at taobao.com, China's largest online store, at prices ranging from 1 yuan to 200 yuan. For merely 200 yuan ($30) a pop, an Internet user in China can purchase up to $200 worth of digital products at Apple Inc's vast music, movie and applications vault. Far from being a benevolent offer by the fruit-favoring giant, this offer is the result of the theft of iTunes user account details Rating: 5

[jamilv]

Old news mate
I was using those like 2 years ago haha and it was a lot cheaper than too ($1 for ~ $12 iTunes), $18 bought you $200 iTunes

[Djlatino]

Old .

[NewEraCracker]

^ Old?

Was published yesterday :/

[Daniel]

Please link me to an older source then.. Because it was published on the same day I made this topic.

[ShareShiz]

if china keeps stealing from us you think we are really gonna pay back that debt?

[jamilv]

It was published yesterday but it was on digg about a year ago and apparently it was being sold even a year before that, I got on it just after digg had it online

http://digg.com/news/story/Get_200_i...chers_for_2_60

2009

So actually I was wrong it was 2 years ago, plus it was going on before digg had a story up

[appman]

cool. mymessageis2short.