Apple Agrees To Complete Lawsuits Regarding The Use Of Gift Cards By Fraudsters

Apple has agreed to settle the lawsuit issue about fraud. (photo: dock. pexels)

JAKARTA - Apple has agreed to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of deliberately letting fraudsters take advantage of the gift card and retain stolen funds for themselves.

According to a filing on Wednesday January 3 in federal court in San Jose, California, Apple and the plaintiffs have agreed on the material settlement terms after working with the mediator.

They are currently drafting a formal settlement that will be presented to the United States District Judge, Edward Davila, for the approval of the preliminary.

Apple and lawyers for the plaintiffs have not yet responded to requests for comment.

The scam involves a con artist who causes panic or urgency by insisting by telephone that the victim must purchase App Store and iTunes gift cards or Apple Store gift cards to pay taxes, hospital bills and utilities, guarantees, and debt collection.

The victim was then instructed to share the code on the back of the card, despite a warning on the card stating: "Don't share your code with anyone you don't know."

According to the lawsuit, Apple usually deposits only 70% of the stolen funds into fraudulent bank accounts, and stores 30% for itself as a "commission" as it deliberately converts the stolen code into dollars.

The victim may have lost "territions of millions of dollars" in this scam, the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit includes anyone in the United States who from 2015 to July 31, 2020 bought a gift card that could be exchanged at iTunes or App Store, gave the scammer a code, and did not receive a refund from Apple.

In June 2022, Davika rejected Apple's attempt to reject the lawsuit.

He said that the plaintiffs alleged enough that the efforts of this Cupertino, California-based company to refuse responsibility, even after the victims claimed they were being scammed, were immoral.