iPhone owners spooked after mysterious Apple Pay malfunction ‘strips thousands’ from bank accounts without consent
APPLE Pay has suffered a mysterious malfunction where users are seeing unauthorised charges to their bank accounts, according to reports.
One user reportedly watched an eyewatering $1,500 (£1,190) be stripped from his account across 74 rapid-fire transactions in just five minutes.
Affected users are seeing lots of small transactions coming through on their Apple Pay, without making any purchases themselves.
And these small charges are adding up.
“Apple Pay is taking money from people’s cards?,” one affected user wrote on X.
“I was a victim also. What do I dooo.”
Another replied, saying: “Wait what? I’d contact Apple customer support first.”
The issue is currently only isolated to Hungary, but is affecting most banks in the country, according to local media outlets.
Multiple different Hungarian news sites have reported that banks are inundated with complaints about mystery charges.
OTP Bank in Hungary, which serves roughly 17.5million customers, said that “massive, unjustified debits” were being made to cards at several banks.
Raiffeisen Bank, to its 18.6million customers, said Apple was looking into the matter.
In a statement on its website, Raiffeisen Bank wrote: “We inform our customers that due to a technical problem with an external partner, the bank cards of some of our customers may have been incorrectly charged by the Apple app store.
“Our colleagues have contacted Apple officials, the problem is being resolved.”
According to MacRumors, some of the charges are linked to subscriptions that had been previously cancelled.
Other charges matched prior authorised transactions.
A number of impacted Apple customers have contacted their banks to block their cards, which has prevented any more mystery charges.
The Sun has contacted Apple for comment.
What is Apple Pay?
Apple Pay is a mobile payment service by Apple, that is built into devices.
Customers can attach their debit and credit cards to their Apple Wallet, and use Apple Pay to make purchases with their device.
It means customers don’t need a physical card to make payments in shops, restaurants, petrol stations and even in taxis.
Instead, they can use a digitised version of their card.
Anywhere where contactless payment is accepted, Apple Pay is accepted.
It is available on iPhones, Apple Watches, iPads, Mac’s and Vision Pro’s.