Info-Mac

hello- i've been a mac user for years and have never had a problem with online security. last week- i purchased a couple of things thru itunes (itunes store) and the next day, was contacted by my credit card company asking if i had purchased 400$ worth of sporting goods online from the u.k ! the purchases were attempted right after i had made the itunes buys. now i'm so freaked out about buying anything online --it bums me out, and has put a damper on how much i love being on the computer. i've run macscan and things like that, but now i'm stuck on what i should do next. any advice?

Well, the problem certainly isn't going to be that you have a virus. It's also pretty unlikely that this has anything to do with your iTunes purchase, because iTunes stores your credit card information on their servers and so I'm assuming you didn't enter your credit card information on a public computer or network. It is probably just a coincidence that it happens to be time right around your iTunes purchase.

What you should do right now is tell your credit card company no, you didn't make that purchase, and cancel that card. Ask them if they can send you a new card with a different number and stuff.

This might be just a coincidence...but a serious one. Same thing happened to me recently. Call your bank NOW, and report the bogus UK purchase. If the iTunes purchase was valid, tell them that too. My cc# was hacked on another website, but not iTunes. My bank called to see if I purchased something from Israel. Not so likely...and they cancelled the card right now. Kind of a hassle to wait for a new card, but they stood by the online purchase and didn't charge me for it.

Highly likely to be a coincidence, but if you were on a public wireless network there's a possibility that your outgoing transmissions were being monitored, either physically (someone looking over your shoulder) or electronically. Don't do e-commerce on public and/or unprotected wireless networks.

That's why I'm not really comfortable making purchases online. I'd rather go the local Apple stores and make transactions there so I can be sure that nobody hacks my credit card information.