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           Compromised Apple Gift Card Leads to Apple Account Lockout

   Adam Engst

   After attempting to redeem a $500 Apple Gift Card purchased from a
   well-known retailer, Apple developer, author, and [1]/dev/world
   conference organizer Paris Buttfield-Addison found himself locked out
   of his Apple Account. [2]He writes:

     I am writing this as a desperate measure. After nearly 30 years as a
     loyal customer, [3]authoring technical books on Apple's own
     programming languages (Objective-C and Swift), and spending tens
     upon tens upon tens of thousands of dollars on devices, apps,
     conferences, and services, I have been locked out of my personal and
     professional digital life with no explanation and no recourse.

   Buttfield-Addison's Kafkaesque situation has been covered by numerous
   sites, including[4]Daring Fireball,[5]AppleInsider,[6]Michael
   Tsai,[7]Pixel Envy, and[8]The Register, so I had expected that
   escalation from his friends within Apple and the negative press
   attention would be sufficient to cause Apple's Executive Relations team
   (which handles serious issues sent to[9][email protected]) to resolve
   it quickly. Although someone from Executive Relations contacted him on
   14 December 2025 and said they would call back the next day, it has now
   been three days with no further contact.

   As far as I can tell from his[10]extensively documented story,
   Buttfield-Addison did nothing wrong. Personally, I wouldn't have
   purchased an Apple Gift Card to pay for Apple services'he planned to
   use it to pay for his 6 TB iCloud+ storage plan. I presume he bought it
   at a discount, making the hassle worthwhile compared to simply paying
   with a credit card. But I have received Apple Gift Cards as thank-yous
   or gifts several times, so I can easily imagine accidentally trying to
   redeem a compromised card number and ending up in this situation.

   For now, we can hope that ongoing media attention pushes Apple to
   unlock Buttfield-Addison's account. More troublingly, if this can
   happen to such a high-profile Apple user, I have to assume it also
   afflicts everyday users who lack the media reach to garner coverage.
   Apple acknowledges that[11]Apple Gift Cards are used in scamsand
   advises users to contact Apple Support, as Buttfield-Addison did,
   without success.

   I'd like to see Apple appoint an independent ombudsperson to advocate
   for customers. That's a fantasy, of course, because it would require
   Apple to admit that its systems, engineers, and support techs sometimes
   produce grave injustices. But Apple is no worse in this regard than
   Google, Meta, Amazon, and numerous other tech companies'they all rely
   on automated fraud-detection systems that can mistakenly lock innocent
   users out of critical accounts, with little recourse.

   There is one way the Apple community could exert some leverage over
   Apple. Since innocently redeeming a compromised Apple Gift Card can
   have serious negative consequences, we should all avoid buying Apple
   Gift Cards and spread the word as widely as possible that they could
   essentially be malware. Sure, most Apple Gift Cards are probably safe,
   but do you really want to be the person who gives a close friend or
   beloved grandchild a compromised card that locks their Apple Account?
   And if someone gives you one, would you risk redeeming it? It's digital
   Russian roulette.

References

   1. https://devworld.au/index.php
   2. https://hey.paris/posts/appleid/
   3. https://hey.paris/books-and-events/books/#books
   4. https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/12/13/buttfield-addison-apple-account
   5. https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/12/13/locked-out-how-a-gift-card-purchase-destroyed-an-apple-account
   6. https://mjtsai.com/blog/2025/12/13/locked-out-of-apple-account-due-to-gift-card/
   7. https://pxlnv.com/linklog/apple-account-lockout/
   8. https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/15/apple_dev_bad_gift_card_code/
   9. file://localhost/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection
  10. https://hey.paris/posts/appleid/
  11. https://support.apple.com/en-us/120933

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