Resolved Apple Card - Account Restricted

[BigMcGuire]

Just got a call from an 877 number from someone who could barely speak English telling me my Apple Card account was locked (they didn't say why) and asked me to call an 877 number back. My Apple Wallet, a few mins after, stated: Account Restricted.

So I contacted support via iMessage through the Wallet App and after 20 mins of them being unable to tell me why, they asked me when I last changed my Apple account password. So I told them, I hadn't changed it in some time... And they ended the chat saying that in order to help me further I first had to change my Apple Account Password.

What?! There are no fraudulent charges, no attempted charges... and I'm not sure how my Apple ID password affects my credit card account from being locked down...

My wife and I have moved a lot of our bills/spending to this credit card so this is not encouraging - after quite a few years of absolutely no problems.

Will report back how it goes after resetting Apple ID password.

Anyone else have this problem?

 

[BigMcGuire]

Resetting Apple ID password had absolutely no impact on the Apple Card account restriction.

Contacting Support again...

 

[laptech]

Are you sure the call was genuine?

 

[BigMcGuire]

Are you sure the call was genuine?

Yeah, though my first response was - this is fake. But the Apple Wallet app on my iPhone is definitely showing account restricted - with $0 available to spend. (No reason why).

I only contacted support through the Wallet App (iMessage) to make absolutely sure. lol.

Now that I've reset my password and am on support with them a second time - they're verifying transactions (Apple Store ones too that I did recently, interestingly enough).

 

[Apple_Robert]

I have read that the security / fraud protection is run by AI and if your account gets triggered, GS has to verify your account.

 

[laptech]

I have read that the security / fraud protection is run by AI and if your account gets triggered, GS has to verify your account.

That is the annoyance of AI in this type of situation. It will learn what are regular payments and if it see's something that is not regular even though it is genuine, it will flag it.

Edit: I meant to say this has happened to me but with visa. Regular usage but then I bought something that was slightly higher than the norm (treated myself) and it was immediately flagged and my card put on hold until the transaction could be verified. Maybe the same has happened to your card?

 

[BigMcGuire]

I have read that the security / fraud protection is run by AI and if your account gets triggered, GS has to verify your account.

That is the annoyance of AI in this type of situation. It will learn what are regular payments and if it see's something that is not regular even though it is genuine, it will flag it.

I think that was it... last night my wife purchased a Kpop album from Korea and despite the charge going through (and her having done this several times before), I'm guessing this was it? Though, the charges they asked me to verify were Apple Store purchases from almost a month ago, lol.

I'll ask them what triggered it once they unlock my account. In that case, that's good security. /s

 

[Apple_Robert]

I think that was it... last night my wife purchased a Kpop album from Korea and despite the charge going through (and her having done this several times before), I'm guessing this was it? Though, the charges they asked me to verify were Apple Store purchases from almost a month ago, lol.

I'll ask them once they unlock my account. In that case, that's good security.

Given this new information, it appears GS did not approve of your wife's music choice and restricted the account so she could have time to reflect on her "deed."

 

[BigMcGuire]

Ok I got transferred to a specialist.

The specialist says the Apple Store transaction I did almost a month ago (successfully) was the cause for the account lock.

Account unlocked now. Cool.

Thanks for help all.

 

[snak-atak]

I think that was it... last night my wife purchased a Kpop album from Korea and despite the charge going through (and her having done this several times before), I'm guessing this was it? Though, the charges they asked me to verify were Apple Store purchases from almost a month ago, lol.

I'll ask them what triggered it once they unlock my account. In that case, that's good security.

 

[laptech]

Ok I got transferred to a specialist.

The specialist says the Apple Store transaction I did almost a month ago (successfully) was the cause for the account lock.

Account unlocked now. Cool.

Thanks for help all.

Locked due to something you purchased almost a month ago!!! Not very good security then if they have only just locked it.

 

[crees!]

Call GS up directly

 

[BigMcGuire]

Locked due to something you purchased almost a month ago!!! Not very good security then if they have only just locked it.

Yeah I should have added the /s to that originally. (I edited the post).

I've had a lot of CCs in my lifetime. And yeah, usually you get the purchase declined right away and then you have to verify that it was you that made the purchase.

Not something successfully purchased a month ago. That's weird yes? ..... lol.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Call GS up directly

Yeah that's what I did. I have unknown callers going to voicemail. So the 877 call went to voicemail. I did not call it back. I went to the Apple Wallet App and hit "Contact Us" and it started an iMessage with Apple to be 100% certain.

This is safe security practices. Definitely a good suggestion.

 

[antiprotest]

Yeah I should have added the /s to that originally. (I edited the post).

I've had a lot of CCs in my lifetime. And yeah, usually you get the purchase declined right away and then you have to verify that it was you that made the purchase.

Not something successfully purchased a month ago. That's weird yes? ..... lol.

Apple takes a decade to fix many known bugs, so a month to react to a false alarm is efficient by their standard.

 

[laptech]

Yeah I should have added the /s to that originally. (I edited the post).

I've had a lot of CCs in my lifetime. And yeah, usually you get the purchase declined right away and then you have to verify that it was you that made the purchase.

Not something successfully purchased a month ago. That's weird yes? ..... lol.

To flag up a successful transaction as being dodgy nearly a month after it's purchase, yeah extremely weird. Did they identify what transaction was flagged so you could figure out what could have happened for it to be flagged?

 

[BigMcGuire]

To flag up a successful transaction as being dodgy nearly a month after it's purchase, yeah extremely weird. Did they identify what transaction was flagged so you could figure out what could have happened for it to be flagged?

Yep, it was an Apple Store Purchase that I successfully made almost a month ago. I have the device in question sitting in front of me right now. lol.

The Purchase was at the Apple Store I've been shopping at for the last 10 years. lol. And it wasn't even near the biggest purchase I made from that store either. Heh.

What ticked me off was the hour of talking to 2 service reps that had no clue what to do or why my account was locked. One of them demanded I reset my Apple ID password and they wouldn't help me further till I did that. Finally got transferred to a specialist who identified the charge, asked if it was me, then I was on my way in about 5 mins. lol.

Alrighty

 

[Shirasaki]

Well, if Goldman Sachs takes 1 month to flag a ”fraudulent” transaction incorrectly and thus locks a users credit card as a result, I can see why GS decides to pull out of consumer market, and probably another reason why Apple Card never takes off outside of US. No one would use a card that is this slow to flag a fraudulent transaction, not to mention it is not even recognizing the truly suspicious one.

 

[msackey]

Ok I got transferred to a specialist.

The specialist says the Apple Store transaction I did almost a month ago (successfully) was the cause for the account lock.

Account unlocked now. Cool.

Thanks for help all.

Why would a transaction almost a month ago result in a restriction/lock? That is plain insane!!

I hope you didn’t follow through with their request to reset your Apple ID password? That seems plain misinformed which isn’t the most terrible of things except changing the password, depending on your setup, can be terribly inconvenient.

 

[Cunir]

If they asked me to reset my password that then it would probably make me even more suspicious that it was a scam. Bit of a weird thing to ask

 

[BigMcGuire]

Why would a transaction almost a month ago result in a restriction/lock? That is plain insane!!

I hope you didn’t follow through with their request to reset your Apple ID password? That seems plain misinformed which isn’t the most terrible of things except changing the password, depending on your setup, can be terribly inconvenient.

Agreed.

And I did... mainly because they closed the chat and the second support tech I got (through the wallet app to make sure it was legitimate) asked me if I had changed my Apple ID password, and if I hadn't, they couldn't help me further.

I hadn't changed my PW for ... long time lol, so I figured why not - it was a lot smoother than I thought because I hadn't done it in years. But still, as I assumed, it had no impact on whether or not my Apple Card was restricted. You'd think a company working with Apple wouldn't force stuff like that...

 

[laptech]

Agreed.

And I did... mainly because they closed the chat and the second support tech I got (through the wallet app to make sure it was legitimate) asked me if I had changed my Apple ID password, and if I hadn't, they couldn't help me further.

I hadn't changed my PW for ... long time lol, so I figured why not - it was a lot smoother than I thought because I hadn't done it in years. But still, as I assumed, it had no impact on whether or not my Apple Card was restricted. You'd think a company working with Apple wouldn't force stuff like that...

Maybe asking for a password change could have been their convoluted way of knowing they were dealing with the account holder and not some fraudster.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Maybe asking for a password change could have been their convoluted way of knowing they were dealing with the account holder and not some fraudster.

Very good point.... I was trying to think why they'd do this and why they were so adamant about it. Though, my only thought is, how would they know. I wonder if they have access to the last changed date on the PW.

Definitely interesting!

I am happy to report that changing my password was problem free, and relatively painless. (Hadn't done it for years. lol).

 

[laptech]

Very good point.... I was trying to think why they'd do this and why they were so adamant about it. Though, my only thought is, how would they know. I wonder if they have access to the last changed date on the PW.

Definitely interesting!

I am happy to report that changing my password was problem free, and relatively painless. (Hadn't done it for years. lol).

Looking through your posts again, what I cannot fathom is why now? Your opening post says you've used the card for a numbers of years and have had no problems and what made it even more bizarre is that the system flagged up a legitimate successful transaction.

I therefore do wonder that since the recent introduction of AI systems from Google and Microsoft, I wonder if the card issuer is trying out a AI security feature that they plan to introduce across their complete system and therefore to test it they gave it a number of months worth of data to see what it would spew out and it incorrectly flagged your transaction because as some of us have pointed out, if a card issuer see's some dodgy transactions taking place, they will immediately put a block on the account and get in contact with the account holder telling them there is a potential problem. Over the large number of years I've had various CC's, when ever one of them thinks something dodgy has taken place they have immediately blocked my account and got in contact with me. All done within a day or 2 days. Never has it taken over 2 days. So for it to take close to a month for your CC to get in contact with you tells me something is going on in the background with your CC.

I wonder if it will happen again, now that it has happened once.

 

[maflynn]

Just got a call from an 877 number from someone who could barely speak English telling me my Apple Card account was locked (they didn't say why) and asked me to call an 877 number back. My Apple Wallet, a few mins after, stated: Account Restricted.

I suggest never engaging or calling back any cold calls. This was almost certainly a phishing attempt.

When I get these I hang up, and log into website of the financial institution or the phone number on the back of the credit card.