iTunes Accounts Hacked to Buy Rogue Comic Books

Anyone familiar with the iTunes App Store will know that there are a lot of junks apps that fill the store (iFart app makers, that would be you).  It’s bound to happen with hundreds of thousands available.  Most of those apps tend to stay unseen in the depths of the store, rarely to be seen unless searched for.  Earlier this weekend, a few of those apps surfaced at the top of the Books section of the store.

The immediate assumption would be that someone’s convinced a lot of people to buy a bunch of $4.99 books with “Dragon Ball” and “Case Closed” artwork on them.  In a way, that would be correct.  However, rather than take the time to sell people on the merits of manga, someone actually hacked into users accounts and bought the apps that way.  With that, 42 of Thuat Nguyen’s apps occupied the top 50 apps in the category.  Some have said that their accounts have been charged hundreds of dollars for apps that they never purchased. {Engadget}

The apparently Vietnamese apps have since disappeared from the App Store, restoring order to the Top Selling Books app list.  Well, as much order as there can be with “Twilight: Breaking Dawn” now at number 10 rather than number 34 as it was during the problem. Not even the pros can overshadow the demand from Twihards.  Apple isn’t saying anything about the issue publicly, so it’s uncertain what will end up happening to the app developer, the hacker (assuming they are two different people), and those whose accounts were hacked.  In the meantime, if you use to iTunes Store, go to you account and check your Purchase History to make sure you weren’t affected.