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Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

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Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#391

Post by beeflet »

miki123211 wrote: post #386
srmatto wrote: post #10

This fiasco stirs up a lot of different topics for me, none of which seem like they are likely to be resolved anytime soon. First, with so much importance placed on an Apple/iCloud account in our current era it's not good that they can be shutdown so trivially. Someone can be shut out from using Messages, Apple Wallet, Digital Identification (depending on where they live) and all their subscriptions and media purchas…

To put this as plainly as I possibly can: 1. It is objectively true that Apple and Google accounts are extremely important to many people. 2. It is also objectively true that most users will only need one of each, a few at most. Fraudsters have no such limitations, and may want to create thousands of them per day if the possibility arises. 3. Therefore, it's likely that a significant percentage of all accounts ever c…

charge 5$ for the ability to send your first iMessage. problem solved.

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#392

Post by beeflet »

jdelman wrote: post #309
jmward01 wrote: post #91

A core concept here is that of ownership. People think they own their accounts and data. Stories like these, and unfortunately the law, make it clear that they don't own anything. I personally think it is false advertising of companies to even hint at ownership. Words like 'buy' shouldn't be allowed since it implies owning. They should only be allowed to say 'rent' or 'grant a limited license'.

When you sign up for an Apple account, you aren't "buying" anything. In fact there is a set of terms & conditions you agree to when signing up which most likely includes language stating that your account can be closed with the discretion of the platform owner. What we need isn't a shift from "buying" to "renting", but instead something akin to a Consumer Bill of Rights that states that you are entitled to appeal acc…

This is really the consumer's fault for not reading a 5-billion word terms and conditions contract before they sign up for one of the two nearly-identical phone brands they need to operate in the modern economy.

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#393

Post by jmward01 »

beeflet wrote: post #392
jdelman wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you sign up for an Apple account, you aren't "buying" anything. In fact there is a set of terms & conditions you agree to when signing up which most likely includes language stating that your account can be closed with the discretion of the platform owner. What we need isn't a shift from "buying" to "renting", but instead something akin to a Consumer Bill of Rights that states that you are entitled to appeal acc…

This is really the consumer's fault for not reading a 5-billion word terms and conditions contract before they sign up for one of the two nearly-identical phone brands they need to operate in the modern economy.

And not having gone through the formal contract law education required to be able to understand that TOS.

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#394

Post by parliament32 »

> It also leaves the question of... why it took the better part of a week to resolve.

I'd put money on they had to restore backups of several systems, fish out his account-specific data, then insert it back into the main systems. This would have happened much faster if there was just an on/off switch.

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#395

Post by mrguyorama »

fencepost wrote: post #344
mrguyorama wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello, I work for a major gift card company. These views are my own and not that of my employer. The credit card companies take zero risk in this transaction, because we, the company selling the gift card, take the risk. To this end, my personal job is building systems to prevent and combat credit card fraud. It's not terribly complicated in fact. The team I originally started with a decade ago was like three people.…

Are you able to track balance checks made against card numbers not yet activated? That seems like it'd be a dead giveaway for physically tampered cards and if you could prevent activation of those it'd at least make tampered cards harder to use. Presumably you could also take things back to the level of "store X, you have a serious problem."

Again, speaking as myself, not for my company

>Are you able to track balance checks made against card numbers not yet activated?

Yes. Can't get into specifics. Not every card supports balance inquiry though. Not entirely sure how this applies to physical gift cards.

Usually what happens is that someone simply writes down the card number, and waits, and then tries to redeem it. They don't do a balance check.

>Presumably you could also take things back to the level of "store X, you have a serious problem."

We can get down to the register. Fraudsters are sometimes employees. But you can't treat customers like criminals so doing anything about it is hard. These same stores don't seem to mind customer info leaking and credit card data being stolen in the first place.

We sometimes have to replace these cards for consumers, because it's dumb to spend a hundred dollars for a giftcard and it was stolen previously, that's not their fault

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#396

Post by Gareth321 »

adastra22 wrote: post #255
SoftTalker wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple makes money on hardware and a 30% tax on developers. They might have some goodwill but are not making any money on privacy.

They only get 2.5% of their revenue from app store transactions.

I don't think this is correct. Analysts believe Apple made more than $27.39 billion in commissions globally last year (https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/08/appfigures-apple-made-over...). That's around 7% of global revenue, and we should expect this ratio to be higher this year and next.

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#397

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

rsync wrote: post #383
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious: How do you do your banking? Most of my banks de-facto require an Android or iOS app for authentication, unless you want to do all your banking in person and pay hundreds of Euros in fees every month (and even that would exclude you from many services).

I am a US person and the four (three very large and one smaller, regional) banks that I use do not have any such requirements. Web based online banking (since nothing related to banking requires 3D or VR/AR or camera/mic access or other fancy things that apps do) and 2FA auth. That is all I have ever seen or used.

In the EU, banks are AFAIK banned from using SMS 2FA, and the 2FA needs to be tied to the specific transactions. Which nowadays de facto means a bank-specific (sometimes country-specific) 2FA app, possibly with the alternative option of purchasing a pricey dedicated 2FA device.

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#398

Post by hamdingers »

swat535 wrote: post #367
hamdingers wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. #…

Imagine if banks worked like that.. it's "difficult" to scale is not an argument . These companies are critical to people's livelihood in 2025 and they should be treated at such. Many people rely on them for their life, they store sensitive information and control communication. I'm of the opinion that if a business can't provide adequate support at scale, then it should either stay small or cease operation. Dealing…

> Imagine if banks worked like that..

I'm sorry to inform you they work exactly like this.

https://web.archive.org/web/20231105205756/https://www.nytim...

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#399

Post by rsync »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #397
rsync wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a US person and the four (three very large and one smaller, regional) banks that I use do not have any such requirements. Web based online banking (since nothing related to banking requires 3D or VR/AR or camera/mic access or other fancy things that apps do) and 2FA auth. That is all I have ever seen or used.

In the EU, banks are AFAIK banned from using SMS 2FA, and the 2FA needs to be tied to the specific transactions. Which nowadays de facto means a bank-specific (sometimes country-specific) 2FA app, possibly with the alternative option of purchasing a pricey dedicated 2FA device.

For the sake of completeness I will mention that one US bank that I use, Wells Fargo, issues the classic RSA keychain tokens:

https://www.wellsfargo.com/biz/online-banking/securid/

... which is quite simple and cheap ... and can be used in place of SMS 2FA.

The fact that these tokens exist and are so simple to deploy and use really deflates any claim (by banks) that banking and/or auth apps are required. It causes one to consider what the real motivation is behind the bank desperately pushing customers away from the simple and adequate web service towards the apps.

Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

#400

Post by paul7986 »

paul7986 wrote: post #87

I just bought my niece a Visa gift card and she said she had the hardest time using it. Not many would accept it. What's up with this latest gift card scammed .. tampered gift cards. Has the media not done a blitz on this issue yet? It's the holiday season and many are going to be scammed! I will be giving a greeting card with cash or just cash app family members.

actually i stand corrected she said she couldnt use it anywhere online but no issues using offline.
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