Billed, but you didn’t buy?
[draft copy, November 23th, 2024, editing in progress. Added payment card compromise link.]
Did you receive an unexpected bill for an app or service you didn’t buy?
Here are the four usual causes, and what to do about each.
1️⃣ Are you in a Family Sharing group, and with shared purchases enabled?
If so, check with the others in the group, and their Apple Account purchases. This purchase should show on the purchaser’s Apple Account, and also on the shared payment method account.
2️⃣ Is the purchase shown in your Apple Account billing and subscriptions, and you’re not in Family Sharing?
If so, you have an Apple Account breach, or a passcode breach, or both. You’ll want to re-secure your Apple Account, reset your passcode, and request a refund from Apple.
- Subscriptions and Billing - Official Apple Support
- If you think your Apple Account has been compromised - Apple Support
- Request a refund for apps or content that you bought from Apple - Apple Support
3️⃣ If the purchase is not shown on your Apple Account, and is shown on your payment card provider’s billing details?
If so, that’s between you and your payment provider, and between your payment provider and the merchant that billed your payment card.
This can be some sort of payment fraud, and can be somebody else is using your payment card details on their Apple Account, or potentially the merchant is billing when you believe they shouldn’t be.
Contact your payment provider.
If not a billing dispute with the merchant, how did your particular payment card details get compromised? It varies. Widely :
4️⃣ Otherwise…
The message you’re reading is likely some sort of spam or account phishing, or somebody mistyped your email address somewhere. This if there’s no indication of an unrecognized or matching billing amount on your payment card, or on your Apple Account.
