A major chinese website is selling thousands of stolen iTunes accounts. 50,000 accounts are linked to stolen credit cards, listed on auction site TaoBao, the countries equivalent of eBay.

Buyers of the accounts are offered temporary access with unlimited downloads from the service for a price of only 1 yuan (10p) a time. Apple have refused to make a comment to publications such as the BBC about this situation. They have issued a security warning however.

Some of the listing say that they will only be able to use the accounts for 12 hours before they are likely to be shut down by Apple. The auctions details first emerged in the China Global Times, which reported that one seller had admitted to the theft saying “Of course these accounts are hacked, otherwise how could they be so cheap?”

TaoBao has said that they are not required to remove the listing because no one has complained about the sales.

“We take all reasonable and necessary measures to protect the rights of consumers who use Taobao, of our sellers and of third-parties,” the company said in a statement. “Until we receive a valid takedown request, we cannot take action.”

KitGuru says: This is a really unpleasant situation and Apple need to ensure that TaoBao remove the illegal sales.

Become a Patron!