Check Your iTunes Purchases

Here's another reason to pay detailed attention to purchases charged to your credit and checking accounts. Rapant fraud has been running around for some time connected to iTunes. This article from the Consumerist points to a story that ran on Fox news.

The story is that some consumers are finding fraudulent iTunes purchases on their accounts. You don't have to be a user of iTunes to become a victim. As Fox reported no one seems to know how these purchases occur or who is behind them. The only way to solve the problem once you've been hit is to report it to the financial institution and close the account.

Curiously over at WiseBread writer Torley Wong tells of the experience he had while searching on eBay. Wong found numerous sellers of iTunes gift cards for cheap, very cheap. These auctions were also a hotbed of activity. Wong eventually purchased a $200 value gift card for just $47. He was emailed the card information. He then went to iTunes to try it out. The card code worked and his iTunes account was indeed credited for $200. But Wong is not dishonest and the experience left him queasy thinking that it was somehow unethical.

Even my poor detective skills smell that Wong may have hit on stolen account data. Possibly this is connected to what Fox is reporting. But, however, I leave the sorting of the fraud details to someone else.

Meanwhile, it's vital that you watch your transactions. If you have several people signing on to your iTunes account like our family does it can be easy to just gloss over the charges. You've got to look at the detailed receipts and confirm that the purchases are legitimate. Often the thieves will test the waters by making a small $.99 purchase. If they are successful then they go in for a bigger hit.

Remember, however, you do not need to have an account with iTunes to become a victim. These charges will show up with APL*ITUNES in the description. I use Mint.com to manage our spending and usually Mint will throw the iTunes purchases into miscellaneous. So I need to check for the APL *ITUNES description to review these transactions.

iTunes Changes Pricing Structure

This April the days of the $.99 iTunes song will change. Apple announced that it will introduce a variable pricing structure based on popularity charging consumers 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29 per song. Naturally the most popular artists will cost more, but complete albums will still usually cost $9.99.

But that's not the biggest news. Apple is also removing some of the download restrictions. That has always been my big personal gripe with them. As it is now you can't download music from iTunes and add it to an non-Apple MP3 player. You also can't put your music on multiple computers, like your desktop and your laptop, without difficultly. And if you were to upgrade your computer moving your music files was a nightmare. Now those restrictions will be lifted. The entire Apple song library is scheduled to move to the new iTunes Plus in March to be ready for the April release.

It will be interesting to see if the iTunes Plus has a positive impact on the Recording Industry's falling profits. It may allow for easier sharing and less wallet pain for anyone who is not interested in the latest Jonas Bros. hit.