Stolen Apple IDs in China Lead to Mobile-Payment Pilfering
Stolen Apple IDs in China Lead to Mobile-Payment
Pilfering
Ant Financial, Tencent say it is Apple’s issue; Apple
says users can protect themselves against fraud
By Stella Yifan Xie in Hong Kong and Yoko Kubota in
Beijing
Oct. 11, 2018 8:43 a.m. ET
China’s two mobile-payments giants said stolen Apple IDs
were used to swipe customer funds, and called on Apple Inc. to address the
issue.
Alipay, the payments affiliate of e-commerce giant
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., in recent days posted an online notice warning
iPhone users, and saying some customers had lost money as a result.
Alipay said it has asked Apple “multiple times” to
pinpoint how the thefts occurred, and that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company
replied it is looking into the matter.
An Apple ID refers to the account used to access Apple
services such as its App Store and iCloud. It includes information such as the
user’s email address, password and payment details, according to Apple’s
website.
Some Chinese iPhone users complained in recent days that
they received mobile notifications of App Store spending they didn’t authorize,
according to state media China National Radio. Complaints on social media claim
losses amounting in some cases to hundreds of U.S. dollars, with text-message
notifications at odd hours.
Alipay’s notice didn’t say how many people had been
affected, but said they did include iPhone users who connect their accounts to
other payment systems, including its main rival WeChat Pay as well as credit
cards. A spokeswoman for WeChat Pay, owned by Tencent Holdings Ltd., said it
didn’t issue a notice to users, but a company statement to the media echoed
Alipay.
Both Alipay and WeChat Pay hold billions of dollars of
customer funds in escrow to facilitate mobile and online transactions.
An Apple spokeswoman pointed to instructions on its
website for protecting Apple IDs against fraud—such as two-factor
authentication, a setting that requires users logging in to verify their
identity with a second code in addition to a password.
Alipay’s online notice warned customers are “exposed to
risks of financial loss” until Apple resolves the issue, and said they could
minimize losses by reducing the amount that can be transferred without entering
a password. It also included Apple’s China customer-service number.
The brouhaha has emerged during a week when Apple CEO Tim
Cook is in China meeting with employees, government officials and others.
Alipay, owned by fintech giant Ant Financial Services
Group, is China’s largest mobile-payments system by transaction volume,
slightly ahead of WeChat Pay. Alipay had 700 million users as of August; WeChat
Pay, more than 800 million users as of June.
Between them they handled nearly $15 trillion in mobile
transactions in China last year, according to data firms iResearch and
Analysys. Both systems are widely used for everyday services like bus and taxi
rides, meals and online shopping, utility bills and even to invest in mutual
funds.
Some consumers in China prefer Apple devices—including
the iPhone—and services over those of its Chinese rivals running on Android
because they consider the company’s privacy protections tighter.
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