help with apple ID

curious if anyone else out there has had a similar problem.....i received a receipt from iTunes for a gift card that i did not purchase. the email address was correct but the billing address was not. i immediately went to iTunes to log into my account and i can't. i can't log into anything, anywhere. i've tried my iPhone - no success. i requested a change in my password, no emails have been received. lost here in tennessee. any insight would be appreciated.

Strep 1. Contact any bank, PayPal account etc that may have an account or card connected to that Apple ID and make sure you haven't had any money taken

Step 2 Contact Apple and see if they can unlock your account, it may have been locked out or as you fear taken over
Apple - Support - Apple ID

Louishen is correct, your AppleID has almost certainly been hacked. The only way to correct that is to contact Apple.

One of the mistakes people make is setting very simple passwords on accounts that connect to financial services. These kinds of accounts are highly desirable targets for hackers who will use tools that attempt to guess your password.

So, once you get this straightened out, make sure you use a complex password. It should be at least 8 characters, have a change of case, at least one number and one special character (like @#$%&). It should also NOT have any portion of your userID in it.

yes, i was hacked & i had to pay apple to fix it! my iTunes account was hacked and the hacker(s) used it to make purchases using a credit card that wasn't mine and they also changed all the settings to my account rendering me unable to log into apple.com.support for help and further locking me out of my iPhone. i had to cancel my credit card and i have now changed all of my passwords. i think the most frustrating thing for me is that i have never used anything other than Apple products and yet i had to pay to get an actual person on the phone at Apple to assist me. i was using their software & it was hacked. why should I have to pay for that???

kimberlym said:

i was using their software & it was hacked. why should I have to pay for that???

Click to expand...

I'm sure you don't really want to hear this right now but since you asked:

1. You didn't buy AppleCare and thus didn't extend telephone support past the 90 days.

2. Apple is not responsible if your password is sufficiently weak that it can be hacked. That is your fault, not theirs. Next time, use a stronger password.

I might add that Apple probably restored your purchases to you and had to eat the loss on whatever the thieves bought. Just sayin'.

Apple actually provides a utility built right into OS X that can generate incredibly strong passwords, and stores them so you only have to remember your admin password to use it (rather than having to try and remember multiple difficult passwords). It's called Keychain Utility.

A third-party version that's a bit more user-friendly is called 1Password and works really well. I bought it on sale for half price, it's normally $40 but well worth it, also has other features like secure notes where you can store CC# information safely etc.

I am sorry this happened to you and glad Apple was able to assist. I'm also sorry you had to pay, but weighing what the call cost you (I assume the usual $35 for out-of-warranty assistance) versus the value of what you might have lost or been liable for, I'd call it a relatively cheap life lesson on balance.