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Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

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Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#151

Post by oidar »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #141
oidar wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are ways to abuse advertising other than harvesting and selling user data - which is a big one. Which apple has already done ( https://gizmodo.com/apple-iphone-france-ads-fine-illegal-dat... )For example, the app store places unadvertised apps further down the list on searches or doesn't even show them at all.

Still a different thing. Hating on Apple is quite popular amongst tecchies. I understand. I've probably been more pissed off at Apple, than many folks, here. But it does bother me, that people don't seem to understand the classic business model of making things, selling things, and supporting things. That's thousands of years old, and still very much relevant. Quite a few folks, here, do that. I spent most of my care…

I don't hate apple; I only use apple computers and phones. They are mostly better than any other alternative. But you have to concede that being in the advertising business at any level doesn't do them any favors re: privacy commitments. I only criticize because I want to keep what's good from becoming bad.

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#152

Post by masfuerte »

hamdingers wrote: post #143
Apreche wrote: post #18

The real problem is that companies do not offer any accessible, powerful, and intelligent customer support. Even if they have real humans to talk to, they simply follow a script. Those agents do not have the ability to investigate a situation or the power to use their discretion to take meaningful action. We should impose, by law, the following rules on all companies that offer accounts to their customers. 1. If they…

I previously worked in fraud/risk at a major ecommerce platform. On my biggest day I closed 60,000 accounts. In one day. I knew other agents who'd done 10x that. The scale of this work is unfathomable to those who have only been on the consumer side of it. #1 is doable but would destroy our ability to combat fraud. "Here's how not to get banned next time" is not an email anyone in this space would consider sending. #…

How many of those 60,000 accounts had made ten of thousands of dollars of purchases over decades?

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#153

Post by mariusor »

humodz wrote: post #138
mariusor wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think it's different with GOG? Both GOG and Steam allow you to use local copies of games, and both would deny you access to your account to download more games once banned. Steam allows you to install games without DRM from their platform.

With GOG you can download the games's installer, vy backing up those you can still install your games even if you get banned

For purposes of backup I don't see that large of a difference between a single installer executable and a zipped folder that you'd get after installing a non DRMed game from Steam.

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#154

Post by lvl155 »

bombcar wrote: post #74
lvl155 wrote: post #21

I experienced something similar recently. There’s something going on with gift cards at Apple. It’s a bit fishy. As in they don’t want you to use it so they can report higher holiday season sales. Or they’re experiencing a huge uptick in scams involving the cards. I started wondering if the system they use is actually secure from a cryptographical pov. My lessons were: 1) if you’re going to accrue gift cards for hard…

There are apparently large amounts of NEW gift card scams going around; Target has recently changed how they work and I've heard other reports. Frankly, staying away from gift cards seems the best option unless it's blast radius can be limited (e.g., redeemed in person).

But that basically screws over loyal Apple customers who trade in an entire family’s worth of iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, Macbooks, etc over the years. Sometimes you just take a giftcard because you don’t want to buy a new thing. Fast forward a couple of years, you basically learn that you traded in your Macbook Pro for nothing. How’s that not a controversy? Perhaps they should give customers non-transferable store credits that cannot be purchased elsewhere. Avoids the entire issue with gift cards.

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#155

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

oidar wrote: post #151
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still a different thing. Hating on Apple is quite popular amongst tecchies. I understand. I've probably been more pissed off at Apple, than many folks, here. But it does bother me, that people don't seem to understand the classic business model of making things, selling things, and supporting things. That's thousands of years old, and still very much relevant. Quite a few folks, here, do that. I spent most of my care…

I don't hate apple; I only use apple computers and phones. They are mostly better than any other alternative. But you have to concede that being in the advertising business at any level doesn't do them any favors re: privacy commitments. I only criticize because I want to keep what's good from becoming bad.

Fair point.

But they are nowhere near the scale of other companies.

I feel as if Silicon Valley has really forgotten its hardware roots, though, and that's sad.

Making things is really difficult, and extremely risky. Playing with data is really easy, and quite profitable.

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#156

Post by mariusor »

ndriscoll wrote: post #132
mariusor wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think it's different with GOG? Both GOG and Steam allow you to use local copies of games, and both would deny you access to your account to download more games once banned. Steam allows you to install games without DRM from their platform.

Unless they've changed recently, I thought GOG's platform itself does not have DRM? Steam does provide DRM and doesn't tell you if a game uses it, though as far as I know there are generic tools to bypass it. GOG also specifically advertises games that don't have DRM, e.g. [0]. Steam versions of the same game (e.g. Skyrim) often require Steam to be running and enforce mandatory updates that aren't always desirable wi…

> Steam versions of the same game (e.g. Skyrim) often require Steam to be running and enforce mandatory updates that aren't always desirable with no rollback ability.

Yeah, but that's a developer choice. Steam doesn't force anyone to use their API for things like that. If that's a concern for someone as a gamer, they should probably support the companies that don't do it no matter the platform, not blame Steam for it.

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#157

Post by astrange »

isodev wrote: post #149
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as they are both in the advertisement business Apple isn't. Just sayin'. They are trying to do it, but they aren't really anywhere near the scale of Google and Facebook. They make money ( lots of money) by selling high-margin hardware, and, to some extent, digital media, on that hardware. Currently, Apple is genuinely serious about preserving user privacy. I realize that can change, in the future, but it's the way…

Apple has created an entire programming language (Swift) as part of their "marketing toolbox". > genuinely serious about preserving user privacy Nope, not anymore. That ship has sailed and more revenue is to be made by harvesting user data

"Harvesting user data" doesn't make money. The reason people think this is that on HN people have main character syndrome that makes them think their personal data is interesting, plus an assumption that making money is evil therefore anything you can think of that is evil would make money.

(Google and Facebook don't make money by "harvesting" or "selling" user data, they make webpages you spend a lot of time on then put ads on them.)

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#158

Post by masfuerte »

glitchc wrote: post #130
inejge wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If they block/ban/close/suspend a customer account they must provide habeas corpus. * evidence "Habeas corpus" is not a lofty expression for evidence, although people sometimes use it as such. It's a procedure for challenging one's detention before a court.

Agreed with the intent, but it's more narrow than that. Habeas corpus specifically means "there is a body." It's purpose is to set a high bar for homicide convictions i.e. a body must be present before a suspect can be convicted of murder/manslaughter by a court of law.

Habeas corpus is an order to bring a body before a court. The body being a live one, the detainee. Thus proving that the detainee hasn't been exiled/tortured/murdered/whatever and providing an opportunity to challenge the detention.

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#159

Post by toomuchtodo »

ryandrake wrote: post #117
toomuchtodo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be a suboptimal UX potentially (vs live funds on a physical gift card), but Apple could tie the gift card to an Apple ID at purchase with a QR code or something similar, and then permit gifting through the existing Apple ecosystem primitives. Apple could then enforce stronger controls as the value is transferred internally on their internal ledger. In financial services, its all about tradeoffs. The optimal…

I remember that article. It's wild the extent to which "anti-fraud" has captured companies, destroyed their UX, and seemingly directs all their actions. And when you criticize it, they blame KYC/AML and cry and act as though they have no agency. A very small tail is wagging the dog!

Tail size is fraud budget (loss) and appetite (loss+mitigation costs). The math is straightforward to determine how much fraud you're willing to eat on an annual basis. They still have customers and revenue, right? So not terribly wild imho.

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#160

Post by [deleted] »

tiffanyh wrote: post #34

I don’t want to minimize the pain people experience here, but it’s worth calling out just how hard this problem is for retailers and issuers. Gift cards are the #1 fraud vector in payments ... because it lets stolen cards be converted into a cash-like equivalent with zero traceability. So fraud/risk system are highly sensitive to gift cards. It's not an excuse, but I see in this thread people minimizing the problem a…

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