Credit Card Fraud — Apple NZ GCS Sydney AU

Forums › Finance and wealth management › Credit Card Fraud — Apple NZ GCS Sydney AU

TLD

721 posts

Ultimate Geek

#231968 23-Mar-2018 10:48

My wife had an email from ASB today warning about suspicious activity on her credit card. An initial charge of $4 was made by Apple NZ GCS Sydney AU. Then two days later, a further $19. My wife does not even have an Apple account, and has no idea where they got her details from.

Google finds a lot of hits referring to the same identity, including a Geekzone thread from May last year. That thread is locked though.

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=76&topicid=214690

So keep an eye open. ASB advised my wife to cancel the card concerned, and are investigating the charges. They are definitely waiving the $10 new card fee, but the other $23 is in the hands of the ASB investigation department. The Google hits mention hundreds of dollars, and it sounds like they ramp up activity if you don't get on to it. But what the heck do we do to safeguard against this sort of thing. Are we at the mercy of scammers every time we purchase something online using a credit card?

Trevor Dennis
Rapaura (near Blenheim)

Starscream122

568 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#1981907 23-Mar-2018 10:54

She may not have an Apple Account bus has she purchased anything from the Apple store because this is how my recent purchase showed up

I am not talking about the app store I am talking about hardware purchases btw.

Rikkitic

Awrrr
12953 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1981911 23-Mar-2018 10:58

I still have an old Dutch email account and I have received a couple of scam emails on it from 'Apple' in the Netherlands. The emails are pretty convincing, good grammar, correct logos, etc. It would be easy to click on the reply, which had to do with my Apple account. However, I have no Apple account and use no Apple devices. Also, when I looked close, the Apple.nl address was not that of Apple. I don't know if this has anything at all to do with your issue, or is just another example of someone trying to hijack the name, but it is an example of someone in another country using Apple to plant something on a user computer. Has your wife ever clicked on an email from Apple?

I don't think there is ever a bad time to talk about how absurd war is, how old men make decisions and young people die. - George Clooney

PoHq

457 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1982186 23-Mar-2018 15:29

We had the exact same thing approx 6 months ago with an ASB card. They never contacted us we contacted them. Total was approx $300 in the end which they refunded. Cancelled the card and no issues since.

dan

1177 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1982221 23-Mar-2018 16:04

i had this, no apple account either, it was Chinese haxors using the card on their apple account

apple are actually decent at dealing with this if you call them, and will refund you within a week or 2, once you give them all the details, statement screenshots etc

MaxLV

656 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1982331 23-Mar-2018 18:22

TLD:

My wife had an email from ASB today warning about suspicious activity on her credit card. An initial charge of $4 was made by Apple NZ GCS Sydney AU. Then two days later, a further $19. My wife does not even have an Apple account, and has no idea where they got her details from.

Google finds a lot of hits referring to the same identity, including a Geekzone thread from May last year. That thread is locked though.

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=76&topicid=214690

So keep an eye open. ASB advised my wife to cancel the card concerned, and are investigating the charges. They are definitely waiving the $10 new card fee, but the other $23 is in the hands of the ASB investigation department. The Google hits mention hundreds of dollars, and it sounds like they ramp up activity if you don't get on to it. But what the heck do we do to safeguard against this sort of thing. Are we at the mercy of scammers every time we purchase something online using a credit card?

This is how Apple and their iTunes store collect payments. GCS is the Global Collection Service that Apple use to collect and process online payments. The $4 payment will be a test transaction to make sure the card is valid, active, and has funds available. It should be refunded by Apple/GCS within two weeks. The $19 will be the transaction payment. Apple do process their online transactions and iTune purchases through GCS Sydney for their New Zealand customers making online and iTune payments.

It sounds like someone may have got hold of her CC details which will be why ASB advised cancelling the card. The Apple transaction was probably that someone seeing if they could use the card details online. Usually when they find the card details can be used they'll try and use it as much as possible before it gets cancelled. You might suggest your wife check her credit card statements for the past year or so, to see if there have been any other Apple transactions.

Lias

4253 posts

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Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1982442 24-Mar-2018 09:42

They were talking about this on the radio the other day.. apparently there's a huge amount of CC fraud around the apple store, some people had had thousands drained in a succession of small value transactions.

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