Apple + Security & Privacy

E-mails have been circulating with a new scam targeting iTunes users. These e-mails contain the following text:

iTunes – The Largest Music Collection Online
Join the millions of users who are enjoying iTunes today.

– Rip and copy your favorite audio CDs to your iTunes library.
– Easily create audio CD’s from your iTunes library.
– Convert your DVD collection and transfer the files to your iPod.

iTunes is the absolute best software for all of your multimedia
needs and the only program to use for your iPod.

These messages also contain a URL and an “iTunes code” that can be used on the site. But when you go there, you find an attractive web page that really doesn’t explain much.

If you click the Free Download link, you are taken to a page asking you to create a login name (your e-mail address) and you are asked to enter your “Promotional Code” (the iTunes code). You then are offered a “membership” option: 1, 2 or 3 years of “unlimited access”, but the site doesn’t really make clear to what you will have access. Finally, you are asked to enter a credit card number (remember, you started by clicking a Free Download link), but still are not told what you are paying for.

Unlike phishing e-mails, where you may be asked to edit information on your account, this is simply a scam. Nowhere does it ever offer you anything in exchange for your money, and you can be sure that if you enter your credit card number for a “membership” you’ll get nothing but charges on your monthly bill. Needless to say, if you get an e-mail like this, just delete it and go to the iTunes Store the normal way: from the iTunes application. Don’t have iTunes? Get it from Apple.