Police probe iPhone pre-order scam over missing OTP checks
Thestandard · 1 SOURCES1 day ago2 MIN
Summary
Hong Kong police said a procedural gap in the online checkout process for Apple’s latest smartphone pre-orders may have allowed scammers to make unauthorized purchases using compromised credit card details without SMS one-time passwords or other two-factor checks. By Monday afternoon, 1,209 residents had filed reports, and police said fraudulent transactions had reached HK$25 million. Investigators said preliminary checks by Apple and affected banks found no sign of hacking in their network systems.
Key Points
- Police said the suspected weakness was the absence of SMS one-time passwords and two-factor authentication during online checkout for the latest iPhone pre-orders.
- During the first two days of pre-orders over the weekend, police received more than 700 complaints involving about HK$14.7 million.
- By Monday afternoon, 1,209 Hong Kong residents had filed formal reports over unauthorized card use on Apple’s official online store.
- Police said total fraudulent charges had risen to HK$25 million, while the largest single reported loss was about HK$114,000.
- Superintendent Cheung Hou-yee and Chief Inspector Chan Lai-yu said complaints surged after pre-orders opened on Saturday evening, mainly through forums and social media.
Why It Matters
The case points to how payment-process design, rather than a direct system breach, can expose Hong Kong consumers to large-scale fraud when stolen card data is already circulating. It also raises pressure on merchants, banks and payment providers to tighten real-time verification for high-value online launches that can attract automated abuse.