Woman's lost Apple Watch costs her $40K in fraudulent Apple Pay charges

[iMore.com]

A woman who says she dropped and lost her Apple Watch at the EPCOT Center has now filed a police report saying that she is on the hook for $40,000 in fraudulent credit card charges as a result.

Full story from the iMore Blog...

 

[Annie_M]

So if I lose my watch, it would be important to follow these steps.

 

[anon(41073)]

So if I lose my watch, it would be important to follow these steps.

Thanks for the info. I never even really though about what to do If i'd ever lost any of my Apple watches,even though I would start with the "Find My" app. With that being said, I am not really buying her story. 2nd I would rather Apple watch have a 6 digit pin just like everything else instead of just 4 digits.

 

[Annie_M]

Thanks for the info. I never even really though about what to do If i'd ever lost any of my Apple watches,even though I would start with the "Find My" app. With that being said, I am not really buying her story. 2nd I would rather Apple watch have a 6 digit pin just like everything else instead of just 4 digits.

I agree that a 6 digit pin would be a very good thing to have.

 

[scruffypig]

Good Advice Annie. I might even switch from 6 digit pin to an alpha-numeric pass phrase. I figure that since I use my phone to unlock my watch when I put it on, that it would just be extra security.

 

[Ledsteplin]

Even a 4 digit passcode has 10,000 combinations. If her claim is true, she must have had the passcode disabled.

 

[Lee_Bo]

Yeah, not buying that story.

Sorry.

 

[anon(41073)]

Even a 4 digit passcode has 10,000 combinations. If her claim is true, she must have had the passcode disabled.

Rack up $40K in charges and then blame it on your Apple watch that was "supposedly" stolen.

 

[Up_And_Away]

Add me to the not buying it group. If you have an Apple Watch you have an iPhone. If you are using Wallet/Apple pay on your watch then it is on your iPhone. Wallet/Apple Pay CCs don’t contain sufficient information to take the CC information out of the Wallet/Apple Pay to be used independently/separately. When you use Apple Pay on Watch you get an alert on your iPhone that a CC in your Wallet has been used (I also get the alert on my other iCloud connected devices Mac and iPad).
-even guessing the passcode, they would be unable to pair the Watch to a different iPhone (requires your AppleID and password)
-to all watch users, consider the time it would take to buy 40k of stuff via a watch interface
-every purchase would pop up on her iPhone.
-disregard FindMy/Act Lock protection, wristlock, any passcode except 1234 unless the thief hit 1 out if 10k in 5 chances.
This is almost certainly a ‘hop on the Apple headline bandwagon’ (you are guaranteed hundreds of thousands if not millions in free media).

Where Apple could and should be better imho: there are separation alerts for iPhone and certain other devices(‘left behind”). Your Watch notifies you if certain devices are separated/left behind. Unless this has recently changed, the reverse is not true for Watch. I’ve forgotten my watch on the charger when leaving home as much as the reverse. Why not have IPhone alert that Watch is left behind?

 

[Annie_M]

I agree that her story is definitely sketchy! However, it's a good reminder of what precautions we need to take to protect ourselves if we lose our Watches.

 

[Thud Hardsmack]

3285154[/URL]]Add me to the not buying it group. If you have an Apple Watch you have an iPhone. If you are using Wallet/Apple pay on your watch then it is on your iPhone. Wallet/Apple Pay CCs don’t contain sufficient information to take the CC information out of the Wallet/Apple Pay to be used independently/separately. When you use Apple Pay on Watch you get an alert on your iPhone that a CC in your Wallet has been used (I also get the alert on my other iCloud connected devices Mac and iPad).
-even guessing the passcode, they would be unable to pair the Watch to a different iPhone (requires your AppleID and password)
-to all watch users, consider the time it would take to buy 40k of stuff via a watch interface
-every purchase would pop up on her iPhone.
-disregard FindMy/Act Lock protection, wristlock, any passcode except 1234 unless the thief hit 1 out if 10k in 5 chances.
This is almost certainly a ‘hop on the Apple headline bandwagon’ (you are guaranteed hundreds of thousands if not millions in free media).

Where Apple could and should be better imho: there are separation alerts for iPhone and certain other devices(‘left behind”). Your Watch notifies you if certain devices are separated/left behind. Unless this has recently changed, the reverse is not true for Watch. I’ve forgotten my watch on the charger when leaving home as much as the reverse. Why not have IPhone alert that Watch is left behind?

Don’t forget the watch doesn’t allow Pay to be enabled without a passcode, just in case someone suggest it may have been disabled.

 

[anon(41073)]

Add me to the not buying it group. If you have an Apple Watch you have an iPhone. If you are using Wallet/Apple pay on your watch then it is on your iPhone. Wallet/Apple Pay CCs don’t contain sufficient information to take the CC information out of the Wallet/Apple Pay to be used independently/separately. When you use Apple Pay on Watch you get an alert on your iPhone that a CC in your Wallet has been used (I also get the alert on my other iCloud connected devices Mac and iPad).
-even guessing the passcode, they would be unable to pair the Watch to a different iPhone (requires your AppleID and password)
-to all watch users, consider the time it would take to buy 40k of stuff via a watch interface
-every purchase would pop up on her iPhone.
-disregard FindMy/Act Lock protection, wristlock, any passcode except 1234 unless the thief hit 1 out if 10k in 5 chances.
This is almost certainly a ‘hop on the Apple headline bandwagon’ (you are guaranteed hundreds of thousands if not millions in free media).

Where Apple could and should be better imho: there are separation alerts for iPhone and certain other devices(‘left behind”). Your Watch notifies you if certain devices are separated/left behind. Unless this has recently changed, the reverse is not true for Watch. I’ve forgotten my watch on the charger when leaving home as much as the reverse. Why not have IPhone alert that Watch is left behind?

Your statement is severely flawed. I've made purchases on my Apple watch,while my phone was in another state. The only alert I received was on my Apple watch. An alert on my phone would do know use if my phone is nowhere in the vicinity.

 

[anon(41073)]

I agree that her story is definitely sketchy! However, it's a good reminder of what precautions we need to take to protect ourselves if we lose our Watches.

 

[anon(41073)]

Add me to the not buying it group. If you have an Apple Watch you have an iPhone. If you are using Wallet/Apple pay on your watch then it is on your iPhone. Wallet/Apple Pay CCs don’t contain sufficient information to take the CC information out of the Wallet/Apple Pay to be used independently/separately. When you use Apple Pay on Watch you get an alert on your iPhone that a CC in your Wallet has been used (I also get the alert on my other iCloud connected devices Mac and iPad).
-even guessing the passcode, they would be unable to pair the Watch to a different iPhone (requires your AppleID and password)
-to all watch users, consider the time it would take to buy 40k of stuff via a watch interface
-every purchase would pop up on her iPhone.
-disregard FindMy/Act Lock protection, wristlock, any passcode except 1234 unless the thief hit 1 out if 10k in 5 chances.
This is almost certainly a ‘hop on the Apple headline bandwagon’ (you are guaranteed hundreds of thousands if not millions in free media).

Where Apple could and should be better imho: there are separation alerts for iPhone and certain other devices(‘left behind”). Your Watch notifies you if certain devices are separated/left behind. Unless this has recently changed, the reverse is not true for Watch. I’ve forgotten my watch on the charger when leaving home as much as the reverse. Why not have IPhone alert that Watch is left behind?

The Apple Watch is capable of Apple Pay, so if you're out and about without your wallet or iPhone 12, you can still pay for things at businesses that accept Apple Pay. All of your cards that are in Apple Wallet get a unique token on the Apple Watch, so you don't even need your iPhone around to use them

https://www.imore.com/heres-what-apple-watch-can-do-without-iphone

 

[Thud Hardsmack]

Your statement is severely flawed. I've made purchases on my Apple watch,while my phone was in another state. The only alert I received was on my Apple watch. An alert on my phone would do know use if my phone is nowhere in the vicinity.

The Apple Watch is capable of Apple Pay, so if you're out and about without your wallet or iPhone 12, you can still pay for things at businesses that accept Apple Pay. All of your cards that are in Apple Wallet get a unique token on the Apple Watch, so you don't even need your iPhone around to use them

https://www.imore.com/heres-what-apple-watch-can-do-without-iphone

While true, the only way I’ve found for someone else to use Apple Pay with a standalone watch is for the owner to disable wrist detection, which is on by default. There’s no other way.

 

[anon(41073)]

While true, the only way I’ve found for someone else to use Apple Pay with a standalone watch is for the owner to disable wrist detection, which is on by default. There’s no other way.

That is not what initially said.

 

[Up_And_Away]

??? I think our signals got crossed. Yes the Watch can be used for Apple Pay without iPhone. I do it though not often (I have multiple cards in my Apple Wallet, hasn’t been convenient for me to switch cards on Watch). But whether I use Watch or IPhone or even use IPad or Mac for an online Apple Pay purchase, the wallet usage alert banner populates within seconds across all these devices that are signed into my iCloud account.
However I’ll note this, this person could have turned off alerts from Wallet. Someone is being overly risky imho to turn off alerts regarding Wallet credit card usage but I’ll admit it’s possible she did. If turned off she wouldn’t have seen charge after charge after charge etc that would been occurring over an extended time. But this means her own security effort included no alerts, deactivated wrist lock, used a passcode of 1234, and turned off or didn’t use FindMy. A number of security features enable this to be avoided. If there was a bug then the case against Apple has an argument. But not utilizing simple (even default) security features puts onus on you (if the suit is even real - some people go after companies with false intent as shocking as that may be).

 

[Annie_M]

The Apple Watch is capable of Apple Pay, so if you're out and about without your wallet or iPhone 12, you can still pay for things at businesses that accept Apple Pay. All of your cards that are in Apple Wallet get a unique token on the Apple Watch, so you don't even need your iPhone around to use them

https://www.imore.com/heres-what-apple-watch-can-do-without-iphone

I do this all the time!