After the iPhone 4 signal issues, the iPhone 4 quality control issues, the pre-order debacle, it seems the flood gates have finally opened on a potentially much bigger problem for the guys at Cupertino. So far, the one vindication of Apple’s apps model has been the iTunes appstore itself, raking in billions for Apple and its developers, while giving people a one-stop shop to find, install and enjoy their apps, music and other media.

Appstore Books category

This may now be at an end, as two iPhone developers’ have discovered a massive hack of the App store. It seems a guy named Thuat Nguyen, a Vietnamese app developer, has suddenly seen his ranking take up the top 41 out of top 50 places in the books category. While the books category is the only one currently affected, the reviews on all but two apps are from hacked accounts. And to follow that up, some people are complaining that their App Store account showed purchases they never made worth hundreds of dollars.

By the time you read this, I’m sure Apple will have been alerted and removed these fraudulent apps from the App Store. I also assume Apple will give the money back to people who were hacked.

For the time being, a safe thing to do would be to change your iTunes Store password.

I think this is the first case of App Store hacking publicly revealed. Unfortunately, I also think this is just the tip of the iceberg, and with the success of the App Store, we’ll see more and more of these.

Yesterday my credit union contacted me saying there was suspicious activity on my debit card. Sure enough over 10 transactions in the $40-$50 area all on iTunes equaling to $558. This is definitely a problem, since then I’ve e-mailed MSNBC hoping they’ll pick up the story and investigate this problem. — srslylia

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A small $1.00-$3.00 charge, then random navigation apps totalling around $190.00. Cancelled the card and now working with credit union to get the charges removed.

I will never use my debit card with Itunes again. –tofublock

[via The Next Web]