Freak purchases of TV Series

[NoisyDude]

I want to see if anyone else is seeing this behavior.

It is the second time this has happened to me in the past month. Somehow, a TV Series is purchased on my Apple TV without anyone in the house purchasing it. As a matter of fact, when I turn on the Apple TV it is in the TV series screen with the Purchase Series option selected.

I am not sure if someone is somehow hacking into my AppleTV, but that doesn't make sense. What would be the purpose? The shows purchased on my AppleTV are viewable only on my device.

I don't think it is some random behavior of another remote control (for another device) in the house... if it was random, I would find other strange behavior, other things purchased, like movies or music or pictures. These two freak events are similar and follow the same menu sequence.

Besides, I checked the registered remote controls and the only ones registered are our two iPhones and one iPad. I do use a Logitech Harmony universal remote, so I do not have the Apple TV locked to Apple remotes only.

Could it be that one of our neighbors also has an AppleTV and is purchasing these shows on their AppleTV but that our AppleTV is getting the beams from their remote? I think it would be stretching it a bit.

At home it is my wife, my 6-year old (who does not know how to turn on the AppleTV or operate it) and me. I work from home, so I know it is not someone at home buying these TV series.

For the meantime, I turned on parental control, requiring entering a password. I hope this will stop the freak purchases for now, but I really want to know what is going on.

Any thoughts?

 

[OptyCT]

Someone hacking your ATV seems unlikely. Your best bet is to change your iTunes password. Whoever or whatever is causing this cannot rent or purchase without your iTunes password.

 

[CylonGlitch]

I would guess odd remote issues. Yes, it would buy the same thing if a specific set of keys is causing the problem. The AppleTV could respond to something like, TV-ON, change channel to 11, record show as browse TV, select (first), buy. Thus if someone happened to do the same set of button presses on the remote it could do this. If Apple added a new show or changed the order, it would buy whatever was on top.

BUT, you could test this. Turn on the Apple TV, pick up the remotes, press random buttons. See if there is ANY response from the AppleTV; if there is, that's most likely the problem. If there is no response, then it must be a poltergeist or something of that nature.

 

[DustinT]

Or your six year old is smarter than you think.