Apple should ultimately bear responsibility for losses arising from more than 700 unauthorised credit card transactions in Hong Kong, Election Committee sector legislator Johnny Ng Kit-chong has said, as questions mount over how the transactions occurred during the pre-order launch of the iPhone 18 Pro series.
Speaking on a radio programme on Monday, Ng described the incident as “rare”, citing the unusually large number of victims and the involvement of a platform operated by a major company such as Apple. Police said they had received more than 700 reports involving HK$14.7 million in unauthorised transactions.
The reports emerged over the weekend after Hong Kong social media users said their credit cards had been used without authorisation to place orders for Apple’s newly released iPhone 18 Pro series. The devices had gone on pre-order on Saturday, with the affected cards issued by different banks.
Ng said he suspected that hackers could have obtained and stored credit card details over a period of time before using them when the new smartphone became available. The launch, he suggested, may have provided fraudsters with an opportunity to test large numbers of stolen card details simultaneously.
“As this new smartphone model was just released, the scammers saw this opportunity and wanted to try placing orders on a large scale with these credit card numbers to see if they could exploit it for profit,” he said.
However, Ng also raised the possibility that some of the reported cases were linked not to stolen card information but to technical problems with Apple’s ordering platform. He suggested Apple might have disabled multi-factor verification for credit card transactions to keep its website operating smoothly during a period of heavy traffic.
“With multi-factor verification], they will use more computing and network resources to process the exact same orders because of the extra steps in the process,” Ng said.
“This also creates a problem with longer wait times; customers have to queue up and wait while trying to make a transaction. So, the overall customer experience will definitely take a hit.”
The distinction between fraudulent use of card details and potential platform glitches could be significant. Ng said complaints from users who reported placing an order only once but subsequently discovering multiple orders had been made were likely to have resulted from glitches in Apple’s platform rather than compromised credit card information.
In those cases, he argued that Apple should bear ultimate responsibility for any resulting losses. He nevertheless estimated that the actual financial loss would not be significant because Apple had not yet delivered the products and banks should have withheld the funds involved.
The incident has nevertheless generated concern because of the scale of the reported transactions and the number of people affected. More than 700 reports were made to police, involving transactions worth HK$14.7 million, following the launch of the new iPhone series.
The response from Hong Kong’s banking sector has provided some reassurance to affected customers. On Sunday, major banks said victims would not be held liable for the transactions as long as they were proven to be unauthorised.
Ng’s comments place responsibility for resolving the incident partly on Apple, particularly where technical problems with its ordering platform may have contributed to duplicate or unauthorised transactions. The episode has also raised questions about the balance between maintaining a smooth customer experience during periods of exceptional demand and applying additional safeguards to financial transactions.
