Urgent Help Needed - 400$ + charges posted on my debit card, Don't know from where ?

[ParagJain]

Hi -

I have an apple store account in India; The only and primary mode of payment is my Amex Card.

Yesterday night, out of a blue, bam bam bam.. 4 100$ charges were posted (within 1 minute) on my Wife's Debit Card with MSI*APPLE COM*B. or MIR*APPLE COM*B. as transaction message.

I have no idea how these charges were posted on her debit card that is not even associated with our Apple Store ID. I use family account - myself, wife & kids all using same payment method.

I verified on each device and the payment method shown was Amex Only.
I verified the email for any purchase receipts and I could not find any.
I verified the purchase history on phone and there is nothing purchased for more than a week now.

the question is how do I know what these messages mean - MSI*APPLE COM*B. or MIR*APPLE COM*B. so that I can trace the source.
I've blocked the account for now but, I fear if there are any pending transactions, as soon as I unblock, it will start debiting again.

Please help with your suggestions that allows me to find the source.

thx.

 

[NoBoMac]

No idea what the "codes" are, but I would not worry about those and start dealing with the debit card having been compromised and needs to be replaced and charges disputed. Odds are pretty good that you'll never track down who/where on your own, and won't really do any good.

Guessing whoever has the debit card number is buying Apple gift cards and sending them via email to themselves. At which point are using them or reselling them to get hard cash. And some other person might have the card number and trying to buy something not Apple related, so more charges coming possibly not Apple related.

Making purchases on/in iTunes, Music, etc is a time-old way to quickly and easily get some value out of stolen card numbers (seen it over the years with various family members and compromised credit cards).

Can try to see if you can get somewhere via Apple Support (link at bottom of page), since you've done all the steps Apple says to do before contacting them:

If you see 'apple.com/bill' on your billing statement - Apple Support

To investigate charges that you don't recognize, check your purchase history.

support.apple.com

 

[ParagJain]

an update; I called up Apple Helpline, they were very helpful; It seems, my debit card was in their system but to someone else in the system, none from the family.
They maintained the privacy and didn't disclose the name (l like this) but, they confirmed that the name didn't sound anything familiar to my user id or family name.

They will do their own investigation and if its determined that indeed its a fraud, apple itself will issue the refund.

Personally, on the bank side as well, I got the cards blocked. Shockingly, from the bank I was informed that my wife's debit card in fact has never been used for any transactions from the time it was issue. Not sure how this card details got leaked.

in all, now I just need to wait for apple to revert back in 48 hours to confirm if this was indeed a fraud or not.

will update once I get to hear from them.

thx.

 

[ParagJain]

An update I received is - Apple cannot refund the transacted amount as the charges were not refundable. Possibly in-app purchase or something like those. They suggested to connect and dispute the transaction with financial institution.

so for now, I now need to wait for 55 working days to get a final answer. That's the time it would take the financial institution to resolve "fraud" type of disputes.