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An iPhone user was surprised to find a number of random cards “spawning” in their Apple Wallet, but the mystery exposed a bigger issue.
Posting on Reddit’s r/iPhone forum, user Fragrant-Turn-5933 said the issue has been happening for “years now.”
The original poster (OP) shared a screenshot of their phone in which a number of gift cards with logos from brands like Adidas, IKEA and Victoria’s Secret—as well as a number from different countries—had shown up in the Wallet.
“The only thing I can think of is that this happened after friend of mine gave me his iCloud so I could download and test one paid app,” the OP wrote.
“I used that account to log in to iCloud and App Store. I logged out really quick and logged back in into mine.
“What happened later is that from time to time random gift cards are popping. In the meantime I bought a new iPhone, completely changed the password on my iCloud, but same issue is happening.”
The OP added that the Shortcuts app is doing the same thing.
‘Contact Apple directly’
Reddit contributors were highly concerned for the user.
“You should change your iCloud password and remove devices that you don’t know,” one advised.
“Did that already, quite a few times, but this issue is still occurring,” the OP replied.
“Stop saving your passwords through Chrome/Google,” another user answered.
“Keep ‘em in the passwords app and not in Notes/Contacts.”
A third individual put it more plainly.
“Your Apple account has been compromised, someone has your login information.,” they warned.
“I see that you have said twice now that you have changed your passwords and logged out of other devices multiple times.
“I think your best option now is to contact Apple directly and report this. Especially with them all being foreign accounts/cards/shortcuts.”
Multiple critics agreed that it was high-time the OP contacted Apple for help with the issue.
‘Region-locked’
Meanwhile, several pundits wondered why the attacker would give the user gift cards, but one commenter had a suggestion.
“Could be to access region-locked content,” they wrote.
“Countries like China require a Chinese phone number to create an account, but that of course means your account is region locked to that content.
“Judging by the wall’s pass content, this seems most likely.
“Actual attacker is likely not using the account themselves. Likely sold access to other users (and probably sold the account multiple times by the looks of it).”
Newsweek has reached out to Fragrant-Turn-5933 for comment via Reddit.
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