iTunes Gift Code Hackers Turn Attention to iPhone App Developers
Third party iPhone App Store developers have received propositions from a scammer offering to buy large volumes of their iPhone applications and then split the resulting revenue with them, apparently using fraudulent iTunes gift certificates to make the purchases.
AppleInsider has obtained an email sent to the developer of TiltMeter Pro, sent from an individual using a yahoo.com email account to the developer's customer support email address listed in the iTunes App Store. The email states, "I've been taking a look into your application and have an offer to you. I have many itunes gift certificates for itunes usa , canada and uk to make purchases through the itunes store. I can buy your product as many times as you want and can share earnings 50 - 50."
The scam attempts to exploit Apple's generous 70% revenue share of all iTunes mobile software purchases, which the company pays directly to developers. Counterfeiters have already mastered the algorithm used to generate fraudulent iTunes gift certificate numbers, but can only sell the fake certificates for pennies on the dollar, as few consumers are willing to pay anything significant for the opportunity to download free iTunes while incurring the substantial risk of being caught with a paper trail tied directly to their iTunes account.
