Due to the nature of the “emergency”, the “Boss” requests that they take a picture of the front and back fo the iTunes gift card and send it to the “Boss”, (the e-mail address it came from).Ī second method that scammers will use takes a lot more effort and expertise. These e-mails are written in such a way as to make the recipient feel guilty if they do not “help” out their “boss” by purchasing the iTunes gift cards for them. One method is to send carefully tailored emails to people in an organization that appear to come from a legitimate email addresses within the company, perhaps from the employer. There are two popular ways in which scammers try to scam businesses and organizations. They just do not recognize a scam when they see one, and often are not thinking an e-mail could be a phishing scam. How do scammers get away with this? It’s almost always due to the naiveté of the victim. If someone other than an Apple representative at an Apple store asks you to use an iTunes give card to pay for anything, it’s a scam.
ITURN CARD SCAMS SERIAL NUMBER
If someone asks you to ether purchase an iTunes gift card and send it to them, or if they simply just want the serial number off of the back of the card, then understand that they are scammers and are trying to scam you. There is absolutely ZERO reason to use an iTunes gift card to pay for ANYTHING. If you only remember one thing from this entire article, remember this: If you are not physically at an Apple store, and someone asks you to pay for anything using an iTunes gift card, then understand that it is a scam. How to Recognize an iTunes Gift Card Scam Once the victim purchases the iTunes gift card and reads the number off of the card to the scammer, they can then use the iTunes gift card to buy “Gems” (in-app purchases), which Apple then pays out to the app-developer in cash.īecause Apple iTunes gift cards are untraceable, this serves as the perfect money-laundering scheme, which is why iTunes gift cards are so valuable. Now, once the “partnership” has been established, the scammer will then do their best to get people to purchase iTunes gift cards by pulling on the heart-strings of the victim. For example, an app that offers “50 gems” for $1.99, or to get to the next level of a given app, you can either spend 20 hours trying to get enough points to get to the next level, or simply pay $1.99 to get to that level right now. The Scammer either hires a developer to create an app, or partners with an app developer who has already created an app that offers in-app purchases. Scammers love iTunes gift cards because they are able to turn the gift cards into cash quickly. This is the information scammers want so that they can sell the gift card for real money. I have read stories where the scammer will literally go so far as to keep them on the phone while the victim is in the store purchasing the iTunes gift card.Īfter the iTunes gift card has been purchased, the number one priority of the scammer is to get the victim to quickly read the number on the back of the iTunes gift card. After convincing them that they need their help, they will do whatever it takes to get them to the store to purchase the iTunes gift card. The number one priority of the scammer is to get the victim to quickly read the number on the back of the iTunes gift card.Ī scammer may initially contact you someone by e-mail, text, or even by calling them on their cell phone.