Mystery iTunes Charges

Japan’s consumer affairs agency has demanded that Apple officials answer complaints that its iTunes store has charged customers for downloads they never made.

Since last year there have been at least 95 cases of iTunes customers saying they were billed up to hundreds of thousands of yen for songs they never purchased. The billings involve five major credit card companies.

“The damage in these cases seems to range from a few hundred yen to several hundred thousand yen,” a consumer affairs official told the press. One US dollar equals about 90 yen.

The Asahi Shimbun reports that some credit card companies have refused to cancel charges, sticking the customer with the bill. In one case, a woman found that her iTunes ID and password no longer worked and that someone had changed them and charged her for purchases with the new codes.

iTunes customers have been told to check their bills carefully and report any inconsistencies to the proper authorities. So far, Apple has denied any leak of information from its Web site, according to the Asahi.