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Appleinsider.com:
$200 iTunes Gift Certificates are selling for less than $3 in China now that a group of local hackers has circumvented Apple's algorithm for creating the digital vouchers and built their own gift certificate generators.
According to Outdustry, which describes itself as a music industry consultancy specializing in the Chinese music business, sellers on China's largest consumer-to-consumer online shopping site are marketing these illegitimate vouchers directly to customers.
"Choose one seller whose Taobao IM is online, talk to him a little bit, purchase his product and pay money to Taobao's online payment system, Alipay, which supports most banks in China," the report says. "All the seller actually sells is the gift voucher code which they send you directly through Taobao's IM software. You can then redeem the card in your iTunes account."
The consultancy adds that legitimate digital music download sites are few in China, as a free mp3 search is dominant. The $200 cards are going for just 18RMB ($2.60) at the site.
"We make more money as the amount of customer is growing rapidly," said the owner of the Taobao shop contacted for Outdustry's story. He also acknowledged having paid the hackers an undisclosed sum for use of their iTunes Gift Certificate generators. "The hackers are based in China, but I don't know if they do the same thing in eBay," he said.
sieht so aus als hätte apple ein ernsthaftes problem...
Quelle: Appleinsider
Weitere Quellen:
9to5mac
Gizmodo
Gizmodo:
Stop being an ass and don't pirate songs and movies. Pirate money and get legal material! Chinese hackers have cracked the algorithm that generates the iTunes Store gift cards: You can get $200 for $2.60.
According to the blog of Outdustry—a music industry consultancy firm in China—the market is getting inundated with this pirate cards, with prices falling quickly. You can find $200 iTunes Music cards in Taobao for as low as $10, and the blog is reporting prices of $2.60. In fact, the prices are dropping dramatically as the number of vendors selling these cracked cards increase.
Nobody knows what this means for Apple yet. For sure, a change of the formula that generates the vouchers looks like a definitive possibility, but that won't solve the situation of legal cards already in the market. [Outdustry and Taobao via MusicAlly]
9to5mac:
Some bad news for Apple. It seems the algorithm used to make iTunes Gift Cards has been hacked by Chinese terrorists thieves and are being sold for pennies on the dollar over the Internets. Frankly, why give your money to a thief when you can just as easily be a thief yourself (eliminate the middleman!) and get your music from Bittorent. Not that that is right either....but Apple is going to be left with the bill from the record companies over all of this lost revenue for those who use fake gift cards.
Can Apple fix this without screwing everyone with real gift cards over as well? We shall see.
